The Rise of the Fallen Ones
by Dr.Bob
Summary: They were left in the depths of underworld waiting for their death. Now Decus and Alice are back but in her search of revenge and a greater power the horrible truth that hides in the dark past of Aselia will be revealed. Pairs and more inside.
1. The Nightmare

_**Author's Notes**_

**Main Characters: Decus and Alice.**

**Supporting Characters: Marta, Emil, Richter, Ratatosk, Colette, Lloyd, Zelos, Sheena, Genis, Raine, Regal, Presea and a few OCs.**

**Yuan, Brute and Kratos will make minor appearances unless I change my mind.**

**Pairings: DecusxAlice, MartaxEmil, ColettexLloyd, ZelosxSheena.**

**Other pairings: There will possibly be two more; I haven't decided yet.**

**Well, after having fun with some Decus/Alice shorts I thought it was time to do a longer fic with a plot. I made an outline and here's the first chapter.**

**P.S: I dedicate this fanfic to my friend Sarah.**

_**EPISODE 1: A NEW BEGINNING.**_

**Chapter 1: The Nightmare**

In the depths of the Ginungagap, at a place known as the Monster Graveyard, two bodies lay in a pool of blood. They were presumed dead and left behind by their foes. No one cared to check: Murder hadn't been the intent but no one would shed a tear if this particular duo met their end.

Decus' head felt heavy and when he tried to open his eyes they didn't respond. His mouth was dry, and the metallic taste of blood was thick on his tongue. He coughed, trying to breathe and kept fighting to open his eyes.

When his eyelids finally parted, his vision was too blurry to see anything. After a some seconds of blinking however, he realized that his sight returning to him. He could differentiate between forms and colors now, which he wasn't able to discern moments earlier, though in his light-headed state, those moments could have been minutes, even hours. He couldn't tell.

The first thing he saw was a hand lying over his own, holding it gently. He closed his eyes and opened them again. Then with an excruciating jolt, he recognized the person next to him and froze.

"Alice."

He clutched his throat as he heard his own voice, less than a croak, but still audible in the silence of the Graveyard.

Slowly, bits of memory trickled back to him. That trickle steadily became a torrent. He found he could remember it all: the fight, the kid's attack, and how he had jumped in front of the last strike to protect Alice.

Yet, there she lay, her hand cool against his own.

"No." He closed his teary eyes and opened them again. _"It can't be."_ But it was all in vain.

Her eyes were half-open, unseeing. Her face was tilted towards his, a sad smile drawn across her features and a thread of blood running down her pallid check into the macabre puddle in which they both lay.

"Alice," Decus managed to choke out. His vision grew blurry again, this time with tears.

He had failed her.

Her face looked towards him lifelessly. It was a proven fact now. He was useless. She was dead. For the last moments of his life, this image of her face, her glazed eyes staring unseeingly into his own, could serve as a reminder that he was so impotent that he couldn't even protect the one he loved most. A reminder that she died and it was _his fault_. The tears in his eyes spilled down his cheeks and added themselves to the blood on the ground.

He looked away, back up at the cavernous roof, and screamed with all the strength he could muster, until his throat ached, until his lungs were drained of air and felt like they would collapse under the strain. He screamed until his voice degenerated into what would be most accurately described as a death rattle. More tears as he said her name over and over again.

He couldn't take it; he wanted to die. He would have killed himself if he had the strength, but he'd just have to wait. He could remain here, contemplating his failure, knowing that Alice was dead, that the person who had saved his life all those years ago was gone forever and there was nothing he could do to change it.

Decus had missed his chance and he couldn't get it back.

He heard a wet cough and turned his head. Tears were leaking from her eyes and slowly Alice's hand tightened around his.

Or _could_ he?

"Decus," she rasped. Joy flooded his heart. Was this even real? Had she come back from the dead? Had his screams somehow brought her back to her senses? He found he didn't care in the slightest. She was alive. "I-"

Though he was almost delirious with pain, Decus tried to stand but fell to his knees with a low scream of pain.

"Decus, I-" Alice knew that his efforts were useless, that they were going to die unless they managed to pull off something miraculous, but she was happy because if nothing else, she would at least have the chance to tell him the truth. "I lo-"

She choked and began coughing up blood, cutting herself off.

Decus tried to push the worry from his mind; he had a second chance and he wasn't going to waste it. And even though his wounds were draining his strength with each spilled drop of blood, he managed to crawl to his iron maiden. He opened it and looked inside, trying to find anything that could help her. When he finally found it, a dark look passed over his face.

'_There's no other way,' _he thought.

Alice's vision was getting blurry; she couldn't see anything clearly. She felt dizzy, like the ground was spinning around her. She couldn't move a muscle without suffering a wave of nausea. She'd regained consciousness just in time to for everything to end, she knew it, and she couldn't tell him the truth. She just wanted to die close to him, but now she couldn't see or feel him anymore. Alice began to cry again, tears streaming down her face.

An arm slid under her back, propping her up. Her vision had become so dark that she couldn't see the person moving her. She presumed it was Decus. She parted her lips a little in hopes of getting a kiss, but instead a bitter fluid crossed her throat. She coughed, some of the liquid spraying from her mouth, but found herself swallowing most of it. What could possibly make her predicament worse after all? As she drank it, her vision began to clear until she could finally see Decus kneeling at her side and smiling.

Decus looked her sadly as he made her drink every last drop of the miraculous liquid in the vial.

Alice blinked and smiled up at him.

Decus smiled too and tears began falling from his eyes. "It was…the last one," he said, looking at something in his hand. The meaning of his words eluded her for a moment but as soon as she saw the glass vial slip from his grasp, saw it shatter on the ground, she understood. Alice looked at him in astonishment. "I'm sor—"

Before he could finish speaking, his expression blanked and he fell to the ground.

"Decus? _Decus!_" But he didn't answer. "No– Not again!" Alice wailed, struggling to cast a healing spell.

Several minutes passed but Decus didn't respond to any treatment that she could provide. She began to feel dizzy, which worried her; the Monster Graveyard wasn't the best place to fall unconscious. In fact, it was a huge stroke of luck that no wayward demons had come across them while they were still unconscious. If it came down to a fight, she would need every ounce of strength she had.

She shook her head and focused. Decus needed to survive. She knew the risks of using healing spells without enough mana. They would drain the very life out of the healer in question's body, but she refused to lose him again.

Decus began to cough. Alice blinked in surprise.

"A-Alice– is that you?" but she didn't answer. As soon as Decus sat up, trying to recover, Alice embraced him with all the strength she had (which wasn't a lot) holding him tightly with her hands. "So this is heaven, huh? After all those murders I thought I was going to hell."

"Stop it, silly," she said, trying to contain her tears as she pressed her shaking head against his chest. "You're not dead."

"Alice, I didn't think that I would worry you so much."

"I'm not-I'm not worried! It's just that I thought that you were _dead_ and– and—" She knew how stupid it sounded but she didn't know what else she could say. "_And why did you use up all the life bottles on me, you idiot!_"

"I was just trying to help you! Besides if I had only used half you might not have survived."

"Of course I would, you dummy!" she knew it wasn't true. "Don't you _ever_ do something that stupid ever again!" Alice didn't hear an answer, so she let go of Decus and looked into his eyes. "Promise me that you won't do something that stupid ever again!"

"I– I will," he looked aside, avoiding the eye contact, "I won't do something that stupid ever again," he said, feeling a rush of shame for lying to Alice. Decus knew he couldn't keep that promise.

"We-we have to leave this place," she said, drying her tears and standing up. "It's not safe."

Decus moaned as he stood; even if he was alive, his wounds weren't fully healed. And he couldn't just abandon his iron maiden here. He slung it over his shoulder and followed her.

They began to walk but it didn't take a lot for Alice to fall to her knees. Healing Decus in spite of her waning strength had resulted in serious consequences.

"Alice! Are you all right?"

"Y-yeah, I'm just a bit dizzy, that's all," she said as Decus helped her to her feet. But she didn't get far before she started woozily teetering from side to side.

"Are you sure?" Decus asked.

"I'm okay. I don't–I don't need your–your–" She shuddered once, twice, three times before her muscles locked up completely. If Decus hadn't been close enough to catch her, she would have fallen.

"Alice? Alice! Are you okay?!" But he got no answer. He tried to see her face but her bangs covered it. Decus picked up her limp form and headed for the exit.

Numerous malevolent eyes watched him with close interest as he made his way out of the Monster Graveyard.

To the untrained observer, the Ginungagap seemed a cold and lifeless place. But this was not the case.

Demons of every shape and size crawled closer and closer to them, climbing along the walls and following them down passages; they slowly surrounded the pair as Decus carried Alice away.

Decus advanced in silence, trying to look menacing at the monsters surrounding them until he reached the portal. He didn't know why, but none of the demons attacked them.

Somehow, having a multitude of demons watching him set him more on edge than if they just started attacking him.

Once out of the Ginungagap he checked Alice once more: her skin had taken a gray tinge and her breathing was fast and shallow. To make things worse, it was already night, and a cold one at that.

Decus was not a healer and had no medical training. The best thing he could do was take her to a doctor. And the best lived in Flanoir.

Then a shrill whine split the air and Aramis appeared like a gift from heaven. He immediately began sniffing and nuzzling Alice, as if realizing that something was wrong.

"We have to take Mommy to Flanoir," Decus said, draping his jacket over her. "Try not to fly too high Aramis. It's cold."

Another shrill whine later, Decus sat with Alice lying across his legs. Keeping her secured with one arm, he used his free hand to steer Aramis. Decus was lucky that Aramis was her only non-brainwashed pet; otherwise it would have never obeyed him.

**Flanoir**

Outside in the snow covered streets, there were people screaming.

"Damn kids," the doctor muttered, readjusting his glasses without taking his eyes off his magazine, "Every night it's the same thing…"

"A floating monster ball!" A girl screamed.

"Yeah, and what else is new?" He said to himself as he moistened his thumb and index finger to turn a page.

"Shouldn't we check it out?" his secretary, a young woman with neatly tied brown hair said from the other side of the room. "They seem kind of…alarmed."

"They're just more drunk than usual, that's all. Damn teenagers."

Then the door slammed open from a strong kick and the cold wind entered the refurbished residence, now clinic. Startled, the doctor dropped the magazine.

"What the–

Decus stood in the doorway with Alice held in his arms.

"You have to–" Decus coughed. "You have to help her."

"I don't have time for your jokes!" The doctor said with annoyance, taking his magazine from the floor.

Decus walked, staggering a little.

"I don't think it's a joke," the woman said.

"That's why _I_ am the doctor and you are–" But before he was able to finish his sentence, Decus fell to the floor with Alice.

The doctor and the young woman stared at them.

"Are these youngsters out of their minds?" the doctor said. "Who goes around Flanoir without coats?"

The woman took a closer look at the blonde girl and put her hand over her mouth. "Isn't she–?"

The doctor examined Alice and frowned; nothing needed to be said. "Yes, she is."

**If you liked it advise it to your friends, and if you disliked it, advise it to your enemies.**

**Reviews will be welcomed**.


	2. Fears

**Author's Notes: Just for clarification, if a long body of text is in italics it means that it's a flashback. A short body of italicized text between single quotations are thoughts. This will apply to all chapters. **

**(…)**

**_EPISODE 1: A NEW BEGINNING._**

**Chapter 2: Fears**

**(…)**

Alice groggily opened her eyes as she moved under the rough, uncomfortable sheets of the bed. She looked around, trying figure out where she was. The room was poorly designed and the only decorations were a rather dull painting of a beach at sunrise, and a pot with a flowerless plant. For some reason it looked familiar to her, but she didn't recognize it.

Her mouth was completely dry and her saliva was so pasty that it couldn't even wet her mouth. Coughing, she sat up, and as she did so, a woman in a nurse's uniform with neat brown hair entered in the room with a worried expression on her face.

"I see you've woken up," she said, her worry melting away to show her relief.

"Water," Alice harshly demanded of the stranger.

"Oh–Right," the nurse turned around and filled an empty glass with tap water and gave it to Alice, who tried to drink it so fast that she ended up coughing most of it all over herself.

The woman took the glass and filled it with water again. "Try to drink it slower."

Alice didn't answer, she just took the glass and after a quick mouthwash, drank the water and held it out to the woman.

"More."

Once again, the nurse refilled the empty glass.

Alice rubbed her head wearily, accepting the glass as the nurse returned with a full cup of water. "Where am I?" she asked, before draining the cup for a third time and holding it out for more.

"You're at the clinic in Flanoir," the woman answered while she filled the glass for the fourth time. "That boy brought you here," she explained, handing the newly filled glass to Alice with one hand and pointing to another bed with the other. There lay Decus, looking totally dead to the world.

"Decus!" Alice looked at him, her expression more worried than she had intended. "Is he—?" she found she couldn't finish the question as she felt a thick knot began to rise in her throat.

The door opened and a man in a white coat stepped into the room.

"Don't worry. He's fine. He was a bit worse for wear and we had some patching up to do, but he's doing much better now. He's just tired." the doctor answered her. "He came here two days ago with you in his arms. He seemed pretty worried about you."

Alice looked in silence towards him, not really paying attention to whatever the doctor was telling her. He was alright now, but things could have turned out worse. Much worse. He could be dead now. She pushed him over the edge and nearly lost him forever.

"Sarah!" The doctor shouted from the half-open door.

The girl looked to the man, who was now making 'come here' gestures with his hands.

"They're already here," he whispered once the young woman was close enough.

"Why did we even heal them then?" she asked, looking at Alice, who was coming closer to Decus and didn't seem to notice their conversation.

"I have no time for this. Come!" He took her forcefully by the hand and led her out of the room.

Alice stared at Decus worriedly. He didn't care if she loved him or not, he had always been sincere. She had been unfair with him. She couldn't believe that she needed to see him give his life before her eyes to notice something so obvious. A tear fell from Alice's eye. He almost died thinking that she hated him.

"What an idiot," she muttered, caressing his purple hair.

And she really thought he was an idiot. Only an idiot would have befriended a half-elf. Only an idiot would stay beside someone who openly despised him. Only an idiot would stay at _her_ side, or give his life to save her own.

Alice bowed her head and tenderly kissed Decus on the forehead. "Thank you for being an idiot."

"Nnnhh…you're welcome," Decus answered sleepily with a lazy smile.

Alice shrieked. She was so stunned to see him awake that she almost fell onto the floor.

"What!? How–How long have you been awake?!"

Decus yawned and scratched his head. "I've just woken up."

"What did you see?!"

"Uh…. I woke up…and I heard you thanking me for being an idiot…so I just said 'your welcome.' Common courtesy. Why?"

Alice grabbed a pillow and hit him in the face with all her might, knocking him off the bed. "You dolt!" She shouted, straddling him and trying with all her might to asphyxiate him with the hospital-issue cushion. "What the hell did you think you were doing?!"

"Hlhice! 'M gl'd tho see yor alrigh, bu' coul yo leh m' mrtdh?"

Alice removed her fluffy instrument of death from his face and looked him in the eye, "So you didn't see _anything_?"

"No, no. Did I miss something fun?"

Alice sighed in relief. "No. Nothing. Nothing at all."

Alice noticed that Decus was trying (and failing) to keep a big smile from spreading across his face, making her suspect that he knew more than what he admitted to.

"What?!" she demanded fiercely.

"Nothing. I'm just happy to see that you're yourself again. I was really worried back there." Decus' smile faded for a moment. "And, uh, thank you for saving me."

"Uh–?" Alice uttered smartly. Why was _Decus_ the one thanking _her_?

"Even though I wasn't able to defeat that kid, or even protect you, you decided to save my worthless hide."

"What are you talking about?!" Alice didn't like what he was saying, "Stop that already. If you were worthless I wouldn't have healed you. Don't underestimate yourself. I hate when people do that!"

"I apologize."

"Besides, you don't disgust me _that_ much." A sparkle lit in Decus' eyes. "Don't take it like that! It's just that… well, what I mean is that even if you disgust me," she said, accentuating the 'disgust me' part, "that maybe I've gotten used to you. That's all."

Decus smiled. "Well, it seems that the iron maiden worked after all. And you called me idiot for buying it."

"Please, tell me you're kidding! That monstrosity is practically a sign saying 'chump.' It's probably the _dumbest_ thing you _ever_ did! It's not as if it worked!"

"Well no," he began slowly, "But you said that you could stand me. That's a start."

"I already regret saying that," Alice said, getting up to take her clothes. It looks like someone had cleaned them.

Decus suddenly embraced her from behind.

"I'm sorry Alice, I'm so sorry," he said, trying to contain his sobs. "When I saw you lying there I thought that you were dead."

Alice took and caressed Decus' hand, ashamed of those events. She should be the one sobbing and asking for forgiveness and yet…

"It's okay Decus. Don't worry," she said in a calm voice. "I'm fine, I'm a tough girl."

They stood in silence for a moment until Decus had calmed down enough to let her go.

"I'm sorry Alice," he said, drying his tears with his hands, "I know how much you hate close contact."

"I'll overlook it this time," she said as she took her clothes and held them in front of her face to hide her blushing cheeks.

"Are we leaving already?"

"Yeah," She said as she entered in the bathroom. "I don't want to stay here longer than necessary."

When she came out Decus was already dressed and waiting for her with his iron maiden over his shoulder.

"Are you _really_ going to keep that bizarre metal fashion disaster with you?" she asked in exasperation.

Decus just shrugged in response as he began to leave the building with her.

"Wait a moment…" Alice said, noticing something slightly odd. "How did you carry that thing all the way here from the Ginungagap in your condition?"

"Hehehe!" Decus laughed proudly as he opened the door for Alice, bowing his head in respect. "Ladies first. Anyway, I know that it may seem impossible, but it has a perfectly… reasonable… explana–mmmppph!"

But Alice interrupted, clamping her hand over his mouth.

"What's wrong?" the purple haired man asked, his voice slightly muffled by Alice's hand.

"Look around us."

The roads of the snowy city where empty. There wasn't a soul in sight. Flanoir felt like a ghost town.

"…Is something happening?" Decus asked uncertainly.

"Something's not right. This is a busy city, and even if it weren't, it's still a tourist attraction. There should _always_ be people outside."

"C'mon Alice, it's just a cold day," Decus responded rationally, "People must be in their homes."

Alice shook her head. "I don't know about that; it's always cold here."

They continued on their way, keeping an eye out for any possible dangers until they found themselves in front of the inn, but aside from the wind, nothing could be heard. The snow was covered with footprints going everywhere, but there was no one to be seen. It was all too suspicious.

"Hey, over there!" Decus said, pointing to a person covered under a white cloak. "There's someone there. There's nothing to fear, everything's perfectly fine."

"I wasn't afraid!" Alice huffed, "I was just being cautious." Although she had to admit to herself that she might have been a little paranoid.

"_Halt!_" the person shouted in a feminine, but very forceful voice.

Alice stopped, surprised. How dare she tell her what to do? Didn't she know who she was talking to!

"Who you think you are!" Alice shouted, approaching to the woman, drawing her toy rapier and smacking against her other hand. "Don't you know who I am?"

"You're Alice, of the Vanguard!" the woman answered, her face still hidden beneath the hood of her cloak.

Alice smiled arrogantly. "Exactly. And do you–"

"Alice and Decus!" the woman cut her off, "For the goddess Martel, and in the name of his majesty the king and his eminence the Pope of Tethe'alla; you are both under arrest."

"What!?"

Flanoir's calm atmosphere shattered with the clanking of armor and the rustle of weapons being drawn. Alice looked around to see an entire platoon of imperial knights file in, forming a wall of armor and spears around them. The cloaked woman removed her hood, revealing a head of blonde hair. She also drew an impressive lance from a sheath on her back.

Decus opened his iron maiden, hefted up his sword, and covered Alice protectively with one arm. Alice was too surprised to complain about Decus' protective reaction.

"Any attempt at resistance will be met with hostility," the woman shouted. She raised her right arm and crossbowmen appeared from the windows and roofs of the surrounding buildings.

"You're surrounded and outnumbered," the woman explained unnecessarily, advancing towards them, using her lance like a walking stick. "Surrender or die."

Decus looked around. "Damn– Well, you were right, Alice. This isn't looking too good for us." Even if his voice sounded alarmed, it was clear that there was no fear in it. "Okay. I'll cover you with my iron maiden as you cast one of your spells. Once you've broken their front line, I'll charge them, and we can knock them aside and pass through. Their crossbowmen won't be able to attack us if we're close enough to their own forces. Once we pass through, you can create a wall of ice to slow them down. With this cold weather it shouldn't be too hard."

But Alice wasn't paying attention to him. Instead, other images were crossing her mind.

_"Stop it!" Emil shouted, his sword ready to strike. She wouldn't be able to stop the deadly blow directed at her. This was it; her dreams of power had come to nothing. She closed her eyes instinctively, waiting for the inevitable end, but she suddenly felt a pair of arms embracing her firmly, protecting her. She heard but didn't feel metal biting through skin._

_Her protector barely made a sound as the sword slashed him open. She opened her eyes, and they went wide with shock as she saw him. His embrace weakened and she took a step backwards. Decus shuddered but remained on his feet._

_"Today is…" he took a heavy, ragged breath. "…the seven-hundred and sixty-fifth day. I guess that… that this one was just another scam too." Somehow, he was still standing, but it was obvious this was more of his practiced showmanship. He clearly wasn't able to support his own weight anymore. "Alice!" blood began to spill from Decus' mouth. She hadn't been so scared in all her life. "You always said that… that I disgust you; but I…" with the very last of his strength, he looked her in the eyes. She looked right back at him, terrified. There was no sign of his goofy false hope in his eyes. They were glazed over and she knew that he probably couldn't even see her anymore. They were the eyes of a man already dead. But even in his sorry state, he smiled at her one last time, just as he always had. "I love you."_

_"Let's do it Alice!" Decus said to her, ready to put his plan into action._

_Her legs began to tremble uncontrollably. She knew what she had to do, but her body refused to move. All she could see was Decus' dead body lying on the ground. Her hands started shaking, sweat beading in her palms._

"Alice?"

Her rapier slid from her fingers, landing in the snow with a soft thud. The fear was paralyzing her.

"Don't do anything, Decus," she whispered, looking at the snow. "We surrender." She regretted saying it as soon as the words left her mouth.

"What?! But if we surrender they'll—"

"Take them!" The woman ordered.

The soldiers grabbed Alice forcefully and bowed her head before their commander. Unable to contain himself, Decus attacked them, sending the two men to the ground.

"Stop it! Leave her alone!" he roared. Looking around for more attackers, he noticed a metal cart pulling up outside the city gates.

In the next instant, the soldiers were upon him like vultures on a carcass. He did his best to keep the soldiers away from Alice, but he could only take a few moments of the exertion. Neither of them was in any condition to fight.

Even so, he continued struggling to the last. Seven soldiers were needed bring Decus into the cart. After that they lowered Alice's head again.

The woman took out a metallic choker with what seemed to be a pink exphere in the middle and clasped it securely around Alice's neck before pushing her into the same cart.

"She won't be able to do anything with that on. Take them to the port!" the woman commanded a soldier. "We're leaving for Meltokio!"

"Yes ma'am!"

**(…)**

**Meltokio**

Marta looked worried. It hadn't exactly been her best day of her life. While they were coming back after successfully receiving an audience at the palace, it looked like everything hadn't gone as well as she would have liked. Zelos' butler Sebastian welcomed them as soon as they entered the mansion.

"Welcome, Master Zelos, Miss Marta."

Emil ran towards Marta as soon as he saw her, immediately worried by her glum expression.

"Marta… Did everything go all right? Did it work?"

"Yes, It did. They went easier on my father. Maybe just a few years in prison." But even if the news was good, she didn't look happy.

"Then what's wrong, Marta?" Emil said, smiling to try to cheer her up.

"Is it really the right thing?" Marta asked, staring fixedly at the floor. "To put all the blame on them."

Emil lifted her chin and looked her in the eyes. Ashamed, she still tried her hardest not to make eye contact, which was difficult at their proximity. "Look Marta," he said, his tone serious, "I know that it wasn't easy for you, but you did the right thing. Besides, they're…they're gone, so I don't think it matters now."

"I know," she said, gently pulling away from him and sitting down in one of the lounge chairs, "but even though Decus and Alice _are_ dead, it doesn't really make me feel any better." She sat forward, putting her elbows on her knees and resting her head between her hands.

"Marta, you can't pretend she was innocent," Zelos said, interrupting the conversation. "What you said wasn't completely true, but it'll help your father. You can't pretend to do the right thing all the time. Doing what's necessary isn't always going to mean doing the nice thing. You did the right thing."

"I know that it was the right thing but… Even though they did what they did, they were still following my father and Richter's orders."

"We _know_ that both of them followed their orders as they should have. But your father was under the effects of Solum's Core. That in mind, it can be easily concluded that they were taking advantage of him to do what they wanted."

"I said I know!" she snapped, "It's just that," she settled down a little. "I just don't feel right with what I've done."

Emil's 'cheer up' attitude was being infected by her depression. "Yeah, I know what you mean, Marta."

"Hey, hey, hey!" Zelos interrupted. "I don't want to see those long faces. Today's supposed to be a _good_ day! The news about your father's quite promising Marta! We should be celebrating it! Stop looking at all the negatives. If I did that I'd be—"

"Probably a lot more polite," Emil interrupted. Zelos went stalk still.

"_And_ less annoying," Marta continued. Zelos cringed.

"And more concerned about the consequences of your actions," Emil finished. Zelos sank to the floor in a heap of self-deprecating woe. "You'll never know how wrong you are…" he squeaked inaudibly.

"Look, just cheer up! C'mon!" Zelos whined, picking himself up off the floor and giving them his best 'hurt puppy' look. "Like I say: Whatever will be, will be. Worrying about something that's already been done isn't going to get you anywhere, so stop worrying about all this and look on the bright side! It's a nice day out, the sun is shining! The streets are clean! I just got this coupon for a free lobster dinner with one guest!"

Something about the inanity of Zelos' last reason seemed to cheer up Emil a bit.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Don't you think Marta?" he asked, trying to find some kind of complicity that could help cheer her up.

"Maybe you're right. Maybe I'm just overreacting. I should be happy that daddy's sentence was as lenient as it was. Not worrying about something else." she looked at Emil and smiled. "Thanks Emil."

"You're welcome." he said smiling back to her. At some point, their hands had found one another. Emil's grip was firm, but gentle. Marta tried to lose herself in the moment, but there wasn't enough romantic tension…

…for her to ignore it when Zelos interrupted.

He raised the pitch of his voice. "Thank you, Zelos," he then returned his normal voice. "No worries, that's what I'm here for."

Marta giggled. "Thank you too, Zelos. Except for the part about the dinner. I'd…uh…_really_ rather not."

Zelos sighed, his patented 'hurt puppy' look re-emerging. "Yeah, yeah, nobody loves Zelos… Well, I know when I'm being the third wheel," he said, the hurt puppy suddenly smirking mischievously, looking directly at Emil who was still holding Marta's hand. "Sebastian, can you come with me? I've got an errand to run."

"Of course, Sir."

Master and servant both headed to the door.

"Well then," Zelos said, cheerfully, "I'll leave you two lovebirds here then."

Emil blushed. "Wait! It's not—it's not like that!"

"Sure, sure…" Zelos answered winking an eye at Emil as he opened the door. "I'll go take a walk."

Even as he opened the door he saw a crowd of people heading toward the central square in quite the hurry. Had he missed something important?

"What's going on?" he asked a pair that was going to the central square.

"Haven't you heard?" the woman said, covering her mouth with a fan. "Our dear Alexia has found them."

"Found who?"

"That blonde terrorist girl from the Vanguard and the one who impersonated Lloyd Irving to kill those poor people in Flanoir. And I suppose some Sylvaranti in… er…in… Well who cares where."

Zelos rolled his eyes at the noblewoman's sheer ignorance, but this was an important development. He had to let the whole group know about this. Nowhere better to start than the two people back in his house. He supposed it was for the best. Whenever Marta was put into a potentially romantic circumstance, she almost always tried to put the moves on Emil and have her way with him. The poor kid was probably scared out of his mind.

"Sebastian, change of plans. Emil and Marta need to be in-the-know about this. I was hoping to pay the pretty gel salesgirl a visit, but I guess this takes priority."

"Very well, Master Zelos. Shall I buy the gels in your stead?"

"Yeah, that'd be great. Thanks," Zelos nodded in affirmation, "Lemon, pineapple and peach would be good. Twelve of each if possible."

"Very good, Sir. By your leave." With that, Sebastian headed for the marketplace. Zelos meanwhile, scampered back home in a rush, practically tripping over another person in his mad dash to get back.

When he opened the door, he found them both engrossed in one of the board games that he would leave out at parties for his guests' children. They were both fully dressed, which would have disappointed him had he not just been given the potentially startling update.

"Marta! Bud Number Two! I think you may have some unfinished business," he called. The two teenagers looked up from the game, "Also, this probably won't help, but it looks like your testimony may inconvenience some people after all."

"What do you mean? What's wrong?" Emil asked, his expression worried.

"I can't really be sure about anything yet, but if I had to hazard a guess, it looks like a division of the Papal Knights have captured Alice and Decus."

"Alice!" Marta didn't know how to react. "But–But we…I thought that we–it just can't be!" she stammered, almost paralyzed by all the conflicting emotions the situation had brought back to the surface. _Almost_. "If she's alive, then -. Oh no, I–Oh my _goddess_. We have to hurry!"

Marta pushed him out of the way and made a break for the city's central courtyard, Emil following close behind.

"Hey, you two! Wait up!" Zelos shouted, his voice sounding far more concerned than he was comfortable with as he ran after them. "Damn! I have a _really_ bad feeling about this."

The three of them could hear shouts before they even were at the stage of the conflict. Some of them were harmless enough:

"Long live Alexia!"

"Martel bless you Alexia!"

The majority however were far more threatening:

"Hang them!"

"Kill them!"

"Cut their miserable throats!"

"Make those savages pay for what they did in Flanoir!"

Once she reached the central square she had to fight a little to make her way through the thick wall of bodies so she could have a better view of what was going on. Once she did, she clasped her hands together over her mouth in horror. Decus and Alice were knelt on the floor of the makeshift stage, bound in a pair of pillories. They both looked like they hadn't even fully recovered from the fight in the Ginungagap, and were actually sporting some new injuries as well. A woman with long blonde hair in silver armor stepped up to the stage, holding a bound scroll. She also carried a brilliantly polished silver poleaxe on her back. Her presence silenced the whole crowd immediately.

"Alice! In the name of the goddess Martel, for these crimes have you been condemned to life imprisonment: Terrorism, murder, torture!" Alexia waited for a moment before continuing, "Decus! In the name of the goddess Martel, for these crimes and others have you been sentenced to death: Impersonation, espionage, assault, mass murder!"

A raucous cheer erupted from the crowd after hearing the sentences.

"The execution will be tomorrow morning in the Coliseum! Let this be a lesson to _all_ Sylvaranti savages who would dare defy Martel's divine will! And of course to half-elves as well," she turned to face Alice. Her smile was eerily benevolent, however there was something else in her eyes; not anger or hate, but not pity either. Regret was closer although it was still off the mark.

Zelos snorted ruefully, "Well, looks like the ol' holy S.O.B. doesn't remember our little chat," an uncharacteristic sneer marring his otherwise handsome features. "She's the commandant of the Templars, the Pope's personal guard among the Papal Knights. Fanatical religious, every last one of 'em. And proud of it. I've even heard that they're privy to all of his crimes and protect him anyway, but that was just a rumor."

'_She's also completely unaware that her beloved goddess _was_ one of those 'filthy half-elves''_ he added silently.

"So they're just like the Vanguard?" Emil asked.

"In terms of their ideals, they're actually much worse. Fortunately, they haven't really been on the world stage that often. This is actually the first I've heard of them doing anything important for…I can't even remember how long actually."

Marta wasn't listening. She was positively mortified. "What have I done?"

**(…)**

**Author: I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Reviews will be welcomed: Criticizes, questions or just support; anything will be welcomed.**


	3. Dethroned

**_EPISODE 1: A NEW BEGINNING._**

**Chapter 3: Dethroned**

(…)

"You can't be serious! This is _insane!_ We surrendered!" Alice exclaimed furiously. "You can't _do_ that!" Alexia ignored her protests, still smiling at her with satisfaction all the way to her fervent eyes. That smile was beginning to make her blood boil.

Alice looked around. A chorus of cheers flooded the city as Decus' death sentence was announced. People where jumping and rejoicing the news, celebrating the announcement declaring the death of the only person she felt close to.

"Shut up!" she shrieked in terror as loudly as she could manage. "Shut up! _Shut up!_" but that didn't make anyone stay quiet. On the contrary, it only made them rejoice at her misfortune. Even her captors were jeering at her.

"Look at her! She's crying! Not that strong _now_, are you?"

"How does it feel, half-elf scum? Now you get what you deserve!"

"Pathetic brat! Take what's coming to you!"

Alice tried to stay strong, trying to fight back tears, but it was completely useless. The more she tried to hold them back, the more she cried. It was even worse than that time in the orphanage so long ago. And this time, she couldn't do anything about it. And this time, it was _her_ fault.

"Don't you dare talk like that to her!" Decus snarled. "I'll _kill_ you!" His threats were met with laughter from the crowd.

Alexia looked toward the crowd with disgust as they celebrated their misfortune. Heathens though they were, execution and subjugation was one thing; torment was another.

"I've seen enough!" she said to the guards. "Take the prisoners and escort them to the cells."

"Now?" a guard said, smiling ear to ear. "This is the best part! Can't we keep them here a little longer?"

"Are you questioning an order?" she asked. The smile left her face instantly.

"No ma'am!"

Without another word, the soldier and his companions opened Alice's manacles and replaced them with two weighted handcuffs; she couldn't even let her lift her arms.

"Move!" barked one of the knights, pushing her to the ground.

People only laughed at that. Encouraged by the crowd, he forced her up by pulling her by the hair. She moaned in pain, encouraging the crowd's insults and jeers. The guard smiled gamely as she struggled.

"It wasn't his fault!" Alice protested as the guards took her to the coliseum. "He was following orders. Brute ordered him to-" but a stone hit her head strong enough to interrupt her speech and make her fall to the ground on kneels. Blood began to seep down her forehead.

"How does it feel, _half-elf_?"

"Stand up!" The guard ordered.

Alice stood up, but as soon as she took the first steep, she fell to the ground once again, unable to keep her balance from the sharp blow to her head.

Annoyed and not willing to waste more time, two guards took her by the arms and dragged her to the coliseum.

"Where–where's Decus?" she managed to ask.

The guards didn't answer her question. They entered the Coliseum with her and dragged her downstairs to the dungeons.

The air was damp and saturated with the nauseating stench of death. As she was carried through a long corridor, barely illuminated by the faint light of torches, she faintly heard some prisoners muttering to each other, only their eyes visible in the faintly lit corridor.

The guards dragged her across a long, lonely corridor where no one could be heard.

"I would have liked to put her with one of those brutes to teach her a lesson. Why did we carry her here?" One of the guards asked his companion.

"Who knows? We only follow orders. Let's put her inside her cell and get the hell outta here. I can't stand the stench."

"Where's Decus?" Alice asked, this time more forcefully than the last.

They opened her cell and threw her inside, making her sharply collide with the back wall.

"He'll be put in another cell, far away from yours. You can stay here all alone until you rot." The guard said, slamming the cell door closed.

Alice lifted herself up and ran toward the bars. "I have to see him!"

The slightest grin crossed the guard's face as he laughed at her desperate face. "Don't worry. You can listen to the crowd cheering as he hangs."

Alice glared murderously at him and made a gesture in his direction with her hands, ready to cast a spell.

"A Season in—" suddenly the exsphere in the collar around her neck glowed and then an intense pain shot through her body. She fell to the ground in convulsions.

"Do you like it? It's a mana-inhibitor. We use them on your kind to prevent you from using your heathen sorcery," the guard explained, now grinning widely at Alice who was trying to catch her breath on the ground. "I never get tired of watching it."

(…)

"Nickolay! Meet your new cell mate!" A guard said as he pushed Decus inside the cell. "Don't get used to him, he'll be dead by tomorrow."

Decus ran to toward the bars. "Please, let me see her! I've _got_ to see her!"

"Great, another bawling wretch," Nickolay jeered without moving from his position on the stone bed. "You can shut up, they won't answer you."

Decus turned to see who was talking to him. The first thing that caught his attention was his long, pink hair that reached his shoulders. It was a complete mess and by the look of it, it had seen better days. The next things he noticed were his red eyes. A pair of glasses sat crookedly on his face, and even though he looked miserable, a twisted smile remained plastered to his face.

"Was she a half-elf?" Nickolay asked, pushing his glasses up on his face with his index finger.

"Yes! Have you seen her?" Decus looked desperate to get good news.

"She was taken to a confinement cell."

"_Alice!_" Decus roared at the top of his lungs.

"Don't waste your time," he said with an amused tone. "She can't hear you. She's been isolated."

"But I have to talk to her. I need to tell her that everything will be alright. I–I—" his speech was suddenly cut off by a bout of Nickolay's laughter. Somehow, Decus found that the sound of his cellmate's voice was incredibly offensive.

"You _are_ a dumb one. You're being executed tomorrow and you're worried about _her_."

Decus was about to say something when he noticed that Nickolay had a metallic necklace, just like the one they placed on Alice.

"That necklace," Decus said, pointing to his neck. "Alice had one as well. What's that thing for?"

"This is a mana-inhibitor. A device made by the half-elves to control them. Ironic, isn't it? To allow your mind to understand it, I will explain it in the easiest way possible. When a half-elf uses magic, what he does is mix his own mana with the mana that surrounds us to create a chemical reaction to transform it into an element. The element is defined by the spell used. This device," he said while lightly tapping on his own mana inhibitor, "absorbs the mana of the owner when such reaction is about to be done and uses the energy to send a pain signal to all nerves in the body. The stronger the spell you want to use, the stronger the pain will be," Then he chuckled a little. "Of course, it's the only way that those inferior beings can control us. If I was back in my laboratory in Sylvarant, I could get rid of this thing in an instant. Even though I'm not good with spells, this thing is annoying."

"So, she'll get hurt every time she tries to cast a spell?!"

"You aren't very clever, are you? That's what I just said."

"Damn bastards! If I ever get my hands on them I'll make them pay for treating such a wonderful person like Alice that way!"

Nickolay snickered. Then snorted. Soon enough, he was laughing like a deranged hyena.

"Are you serious?" he gasped, "It's been a long time since I've laughed like this. You're going to be killed, you moron." Nickolay wiped a tear from the corner of his eye. "Here's what they're going to do—here's what they're going to do to you: They'll force you down on your knees, slam your face onto wood stump, and a fat guy with an axe wearing a sack over his head will-"

"Has he to be fat?" Decus asked intrigued.

"Do you mind!? I'm the one explaining." Nickolay complained annoyed by his interreuption. "Where I was? Oh yeah! The _fat_ guy with an axe and a sack over his heard will try to cut off your head. And I say try because he'll probably miss and will need a few tries to get it right. You're about to die horribly, and you're worrying about someone else instead of trying to come up with a way to save your own skin? You are really something."

Decus chuckled, to Nickolay's surprise.

"I guess you're right. Alice would have said the same thing."

The pink haired man sighed as rolled his eyes and accommodated himself on the bed.

(…)

Marta, Emil and Zelos walked towards the palace's entrance. As they passed, all the soldiers greeted Zelos with respect and in exchange, he smiled and waved his hand. When they reached the gate, two imperial guards opened the door for them.

Marta had been inside the castle a few times already but it never would stop dazzling her. The tall white marble pillars that served as support to the colossal vaults along the throne room, the long red carpet that ran from the entrance up to the throne; everything was beautiful. A large, circular window at the back of the hall illuminated the chamber with a pale blue moonlight.

The King was waiting for them. At his right side was his daughter, princess Hilda, at his left, the Pope. And standing next to the Pope was the silver-clad woman who had read Decus and Alice condemns, Alexia.

Marta and Emil knelt before the King.

"My lord," Marta begun, "we're very sorry for insisting an audience at this late hour, but the lives of—"

"You both," the King interrupted, pointing to Marta and Emil, "please rise. You have already shown your respect for me earlier in the day. There is no need to keep yourself hunched over so uncomfortably." Marta and Emil stood up, as per the King's instructions.

"Thank you. We've come here because two people have been wrongly convicted."

"Continue," prompted the King with a faint nod.

"Decus and Alice weren't the true culprits of—"

"_Silence!_ We've heard _enough,_ and we will _not_ change their sentence!" the Pope raved, "You Sylvaranti buffoons have woken His Majesty in the middle of the night, and now you mean to tell us that you _lied_ to his face less than twenty-four hours ago?! You should be—"

"Settle down, my friend. Let them say their piece," said the King, ending the Pope's tirade before it grew too wild, much to Marta and Emil's relief.

"As much as I'm sorry to admit it, Your Majesty, we didn't tell you the whole truth," Emil announced, "Can't you change the judgement? There's a lot that happened that would be difficult to explain, but they shouldn't take all the blame in this situation."

The King sighed, "I am afraid that I cannot do that, young man."

"But–but—"

"_But nothing_," the King interjected beginning to sound rather irate, "I agree with the Pope on this matter. They destroyed hundreds, _thousands_ of innocent lives and they _must_ be held accountable for their crimes."

"They were following orders!" Marta shouted.

"From Brute?" reasoned Princess Hilde, drawing the obvious conclusion. Her voice was gentle, but she knew what the implications would be if Marta answered in the affirmative.

"From…from—" but she couldn't finish. If she told the King it was Brute after all, she would be the responsible for the death of her father.

"From a man called Richter Abend, my lord." Emil said. The red-haired man was the last person he wanted to blame but he had to do something to help Marta. "He was possibly the mastermind behind all of the Vanguard's operations."

"The informants didn't say anything about anyone named Richter," Alexia told Emil, chillingly calm. "The Vanguard filed reports on nearly all of their actions. There was a vast quantity of documents to go through. Documents provided by Miss Lualdi here. And no one named Richter Abend appeared in them. Do you expect us to believe this?"

"Yes! He did everything off the record! He didn't want anyone to know what he was doing," Emil answered. He knew it sounded suspicious, but what else could he say?

"Nonsense!" snorted the Pope, "Do you think we will simply believe any rubbish that spills from your mouths? Do you think that you can tell us that some mystery man that no one but you knows about was responsible for all these crimes and that we'll simply take your word for it? Don't listen to these fools, my King."

Alexia, ever the loyal soldier, backed the Pope on the matter.

"Besides, even if they weren't the brains behind the operation, they _were_ the ones responsible for the deaths of all those innocent people. They weren't part of an army at wartime. They were part of a terrorist organization and were free to leave it whenever they chose. No one forced them to follow those orders. They are directly responsible for their actions and now they must pay for their crimes." Emil couldn't bring himself to argue that point. He had said the same thing right after they had died.

"_I think Alice lived the way she wanted to live. She was exactly who she wanted to be."_

The King and the Princess both nodded in silent agreement. Marta and Emil looked to Zelos for help.

"You already know my opinion, and it's not the one you need right now. I helped you get an audience. That's all I can do."

Marta looked disappointed by Zelos' answer, but she refused to give up.

"Your Majesty, if we kill him, won't we just be stooping to their level?"

"What would _you_ have us do then?" Alexia asked in a serious tone. "Should we set them free? It's quite obvious that they're both far too dangerous for us to let them do as they please. Would you prefer to keep the man imprisoned his whole life? Let him rot in prison until he dies? Would you feel better?"

Marta was at a loss for words.

"Have you ever _been_ in a prison?" Alexia asked.

Marta shook her head stiffly.

"A life behind bars is no life at all. Some prisoners grow so desperate to escape their bondage that they take their own lives one way or another. Execution is the most merciful sentence we can give him."

"Indeed," the Pope agreed.

"Ha. Right…" Zelos interrupted, laughing humourlessly. "_That's_ why you want to see Decus killed. Don't patronize us Your Eminence; we all know why you really want to kill him. You can paint it as justice or as pity, but in the end, it's simple revenge against the _'Sylvaranti savages'_ to satisfy your superiority complex."

The Pope's face, in his fury, had bypassed the color red and was turning a very unhealthy-looking shade of purple.

"_Chosen!_" Alexia turned towards Zelos glaring, her calm finally broken, perhaps out of worry that if any more blood vessels in her master's head were to burst he'd die of a stroke.

"Hey, hey! Don't give me that look. I'm not even disagreeing with your decision. I'm just saying what nobody else would. That's all."

"How can you—"

"Alexia, stop!" The King ordered. "I understand what you are trying to do Marta. And your mercy is a fine and honourable quality. But the heart of my kingdom is wounded and as King, I must do what is best for my kingdom." Marta looked despairingly toward the King, trying to contain her tears. "He will be executed tomorrow after sunrise. You are dismissed."

The King left without letting her argue her point any further. She couldn't blame him. It was late, they were all tired, and they were talking about a very unpleasant subject.

"I understand how you feel. I wanted to help them too," Emil said, putting a hand on her shoulder as he accompanied her to the gate hoping that he could make her feel even a little better.

But Marta just began to cry. She didn't want Decus to die, but to claim his innocence would have been to claim her own father's guilt. And even if he was one responsible, she couldn't incriminate him. Deep down, she knew that if it came down to it, she would choose her father over Decus. In order to save her father, she had to let him die. And once again, even if it was the best available choice, she couldn't help but feel guilty in the end.

(…)

Decus didn't know what time it was. Without any sunlight, it was difficult to determine. He hadn't slept all night; the anxiety over his imminent execution had him awake. That, and if it was going to be his last night alive, he didn't want to waste it sleeping.

At first it took him some time to get used to the idea that he was going to die. He knew that as soon as the executioner's axe came down on his neck, his life, and all the joys that came with it would simply cease to exist. But the worst part was that he wouldn't be able to live long enough to finally see Alice truly happy. Desperation soon took him, but all the miserable thoughts were banished from his mind just by thinking of his beloved Alice and all the happy moments they spent together. Twelve years that he wouldn't give up for anything.

He heard the clanking of the imperial knights' boots as three of them walked down the stairs to the dungeon. It was almost time for him to die, but somehow he wasn't afraid anymore. He felt calm. He was a little sad for Alice, but he knew she was a tough girl and that she would find her way.

"Decus! Stand up!" one of the knights ordered.

Decus did as he was told as the other guard opened the cell. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It was almost over. When he opened his eyes, he could see the knights in their royal armor waiting for him. _Hold on…_

"Okay. Come here and don't make any sudden movements."

Decus did as told and got out of his cell and smiled.

"Why are you so happy? We're about to _execute_ you."

"It's just that–" and suddenly, interrupting himself, he swiped the sword belonging to the guard who had been closing the cell. In the same fluid movement, he kicked the knight that was facing him. The third guard came to the aid of his companions but he was easily disarmed with a strong ascending slash. "I've always been told that I don't know when to give up!"

Decus threw the weapon and began to run through the dungeons.

"Warn the imperial knights! A prisoner is trying to escape!"

The disarmed guard hurried back down the hall and up the stairs. Presumably, he'd be back with reinforcements in a few minutes.

"Well, that was weird," said the second guard, the one who'd been kicked, putting a hand over a painful spot on his stomach where he was sure a bruise was forming.

"Do you even hear yourself? He's about to be killed! Why the hell _wouldn't_ he try to make a run for it?"

"Well, I know, but that's the weird part. He's _not_ trying to escape. He's going deeper in the dungeons."

"What the–?"

(…)

Decus didn't waste a second. If Nickolay had been telling the truth, which he still had his doubts about, Alice should be imprisoned in the deepest part of the dungeon.

He kept running until he found a staircase, which he descended. And there it was; a long isolated corridor, with a single lonely cell at the very end.

"Alice!"

He for her cell but he was soon intercepted by an imperial knight who had run up from behind him. He managed to defend himself, but the first offender had only been a distraction. As soon as the man dropped, Decus found himself completely surrounded by far more soldiers than he could deal with in his present condition.

"_Alice!_" he screamed as the guards dragged him out.

"Decus!" Alice's voice echoed down from the far end of the hall.

"Damn! Let me just…be with her…a _moment!_"

Decus tried to get shake the guards off, but he was easily subdued with a strong kick in the gut followed by a punch to the face.

"Leave him alone!"

But Alice's words were in vain. Metal gloves and boots impacted against his body. The guards proceed to lynch him, trying to restrain him.

She was unable to look at it anymore and even knowing it was a bad idea she began to cast a spell.

"_May a merciless embrace of frost take thee!"_ The pain slowly began to run through her body as she casted the spell.

"What the—!" a guard started, astonished.

"She wouldn't!" another one said, sounding unsure.

The rest of the guards looked at Alice as glowing runes appeared in the air around her. A blinding white-blue light illuminated the room. Some of the guards who were versed in combat spells began to step back in fright, knowing the imminent result of the spell.

"_Absolu_—" but a painful electric shock coursed through her body before she could finalize the spell, causing her to fall to the stone floor in convulsions, screaming in pain.

"Alice!" Decus cried from the ground, spitting some blood from his mouth. "_Alice! No!_"

But Decus was soon dragged out by a bunch of guards.

"She's—" Decus coughed. "She's in pain! Can't you hear her?!"

"Of course we can!" a guard answered in frusration, shoving him forward toward the coliseum's arena entrance. "Why would we care? Now _move!_"

As he entered the arena, it seemed like all of Meltokio had arrived to cheer from the terraces. This wasn't like any executions he'd heard about before. Weren't people supposed to boo and jeer at him? Instead of an execution, it looked like a celebration. A bizarre, and admittedly terrifying spectacle where everyone was invited to watch a person die. And that person was him.

"Didn't you hear me? I said _walk!_" the imperial knight said, prodding him with a lance, along with four more guards. But to their disgrace Decus refused to walk to the center of the arena: instead, Decus walked back to the dungeons.

"She needs me," Decus said, limping. "I need to make sure she's okay."

"This is ridiculous! Help me take him in."

Finally, the guards left their weapons and took him to the center of the arena where a man with a black hood over his face was waiting to carry out his sentence. Decus couldn't help but feel that the axe the man carried was way too big.

(…)

The pain was gone, but Alice was still lying over the ground. She just couldn't find any reason to stand up. Tears rolled silently down her face as the death of a dear friend approached, but she didn't wipe them away. There was no point. She just lay there silent except for the occasional sniffle. She felt useless, Decus was going to die and it would be her fault.

"What a spectacle you performed here a moment ago."

Alice blinked some tears out of her eyes and looked up to see who had spoken. She couldn't make anyone out before the aristocratic voice continued.

"For a moment, I thought that you were going to finish casting that spell. Quite impressive. I knew that you would be the perfect person to take on the task I have in mind."

Alice waited for her vision to clear to see who was talking to her. A tall man stood before her, hidden under a cloaked tunic that hid his body, from his feet all the way to his head.

"Forget it!"

"That's your answer? And what if I told you that Decus could survive?" the man elaborated, pulling his hood down and revealing his face.

Alice watched in alarm as the person revealed himself to be none other than the Pope. She wiped her eyes on her sleeve and stood up as fast as she could.

"How?" she demanded, desperation prominent in her voice.

"It's quite simple. I'll make you an offer that you cannot refuse."

"What? Tell me! I'll do anything!"

The Pope smiled, opened the cell, and revealed a ceremonial dagger hidden in his robes.

"This should be easy for you. You need only go to the King's box and stab him. Fatally. Once you do that, the execution cannot be completed. Your friend will have enough time to get away in the resulting confusion. Do we have a deal?" The Pope finished, offering her the dagger.

She took it.

The Pope's smile grew wider, and pulled a torch on the wall like a lever, revealing a secret passage hidden in the wall. "Use this passage; it will be faster than sneaking through this wretched prison."

Alice didn't need to be told twice. She had too many questions, and she didn't trust the Pope as far as she could throw him, and with his morbidly obese frame that wouldn't be far. Even so, she had no time to waste. Each second counted, and one moment could easily be the difference between life and death.

(…)

When she finally came out from the passage, she popped her head around the corner to see where she was. If the Pope had given her accurate information she wouldn't need to go very far to reach the royal box. She was surprised by the lack of guards in the area though. Three in total.

Alice closed her eyes; her heart raced and her hands trembled. There was no time for subtlety. She needed to be fast and she'd only get one chance. In other words, failure meant death. She had never studied law, but she figured that attempted regicide wasn't one of those offences where she would get fined three hundred gald and be sent on her way.

She couldn't help but feel that this t would have been far easier if were able to use magic. As things stood however, she'd have a bit more trouble. She gripped the dagger tighter, took a breath, and came out of hiding spot running as fast as she could.

She was lucky; the first guard she saw had his back to her. She stabbed him in the back and before he even could scream she had cut his throat. Alice continued running.

She could hear the King's presentation. "People of Tethe'alla. His majesty the King!" She was running out of time.

Two more guards blocked her way, but she had no time to waste. And as suicidal as it was, she ran toward them at full tilt. Before they had the chance to draw their weapons, Alice had slid between them and slashed them both behind their knees. The guards tried to follow her but both fell to the floor as soon as they put any weight on their injured legs.

"Warn the royal guard! Warn Alexia!"

Alice found the entrance to the royal box around the next corner. It was completely unguarded. It looked like the Pope had everything under control.

(…)

"People of Meltokio! Today is a momentous day!" the crowd cheered enthusiastically. "Today, the man behind the atrocious massacres at Flanoir and Palmacosta will be brought to justice! Today the judgement of the goddess Martel shall fall upon him!"

The crowd became more and more excited with each word, but his speech was suddenly cut off, ending in a choking cough, and the crowd went silent with him.

The King tasted something warm and metallic in his mouth. Wiping a hand across his mouth, he confirmed what he suspected.

Blood.

"Judgement of the goddess, my ass…" someone whispered in his ear. As soon as the cold blade left his back, he began to feel the pain, falling to his knees.

He saw his daughter staring at something behind him, her hands cupped over her mouth in speechless horror. Likely his assassin.

He turned around, painfully to see who had stabbed him. Alice stood over him, glaring murderously. Then he saw the dagger.

"You…cowardly…traitor—" he whispered.

Alice stabbed him once more again, this time in the chest.

"Your people cry out for blood. I think you should give it to them!"

The King reeled in pain and stumbled backward. Alice gave him the push that sent him out of the box. Everyone watched speechless as the King fell the full eighty feet to the ground. Thus the king of Tethe'alla met his end.

"_Father!_" Princess Hilda shrieked, seeming to have found her voice.

Alice quickly grabbed the princess and put the dagger to her throat.

"Stop the execution _immediately_, or the princess's _head comes off!_"

The executioner dropped his axe and took a few timid steps backward.

The princess began to cry from sheer terror.

"I-I didn't—want any of thi-this to happen. D-D-Don't kill me! Please!

"Shut up!" Alice shouted, pressing the tip of the dagger into Hilda's skin, making a single drop of blood travel down her neck. "Decus! Hurry up and get out of here!"

Decus just stared back at her.

"Now!" she ordered, and Decus finally did as he was told.

Alice didn't mean to sound too harsh, but a number of knights had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Their lances and swords were all trained on her, and the tension was mounting with each second.

"Drop the weapons and let me pass or she dies!"

The guards didn't obey her as soon as she would have liked. She grabbed the princess' arm, and leaped from the royal box and into the stands, dragging the princess with her into to the arena."

"Please do what she says!" said the princess, her voice trembling. She was now covered in bruises from being pulled into various objects and wasn't able to stand up straight, favoring her left leg over her right.

The guards dropped their weapons and moved aside, letting her pass. Alice moved the dagger toward the princess' back and ordered her to move. If anyone tried anything, she'd ensure that the princess would die of blood loss before anyone could get to her.

Alice finally managed to reach the central square where Decus was waiting for her with his iron-maiden slung over his shoulder.

"Decus, you're wounded!"

"Yeah, but don't worry, I'm fine," he answered proudly. "Thank you for saving my life Alice. Again."

"I'll heal you anyway. And you don't need to thank me, idiot, I— Wait a moment!" she said, noticing something in the air, a familiar and very offensive aroma. "That smell…did you put on Eau de Seduction at a moment like _this?_"

"Well, Alice, I did just come out of a dungeon. That place smells like a sewer. I just didn't want to smell bad."

"And your solution was that stinking cologne. What a good idea."

"Well, thank you, Alice!" he replied, scratching his head. "I knew that it would eventually grow on you."

"Oh, for the love of—Do you even _know_ what sarcasm is?"

"Of course I do. Sarcasm is to say the contrary of what you mean with the intention of offending a person. Why wouldn't I–" He finally realized what she meant. "Wait. You were being sarcastic with me?" He asked in astonishment, putting a hand over his chest as if he had been wounded by her, "Why do you keep shattering my already broken heart?"

Alice rolled her eyes in response, but didn't have time to respond with a caustic comment as they were both suddenly reminded that they were being pursued.

"It's over!" Alexia shouted from her position at the bottom of the staircase to the upper city. "Release the princess and I will grant you a quick death!"

Within moments of Alexia's decree, imperial knights had surrounded the square.

"You aren't a good negotiator," Alice said, smiling humourlessly, "If I'm going to be killed, I'd prefer to take your little princess with me."

The princess was on the verge of panicking.

Alexia frowned. It would be preferable to keep the princess alive, but she couldn't fulfill Alice's demands by any means. She had killed the King. The Pope would surely be furious. She foolishly hadn't counted on Hilda being taken hostage, nor did she count on Alice escaping through the stadium rather than through the castle.

A horrific thought struck her. Could the Pope himself have suggested Alice's actions? No…that was impossible. He was Martel's voice on Aselia; he could never do such a thing.

She wondered what prevented Alice from killing the princess anyway? The only reason that the princess was still alive was the fact that Alice needed her as a hostage, but once she didn't, she would probably kill her. Either way, the Pope would be forced to play the part of acting King of Tethe'alla until Hilda was able to perform that role, and even if Hilda died, His Eminence would surely perform the role admirably.

What was she thinking? This was the _princess_. She had to ensure her safety no matter what!

"You're completely surrounded," she said stoically. "There is no escape, Alice. Release the princess. Your misguided little escape attempt ends here."

Alice looked around, contemplating the sad truth. Alexia was right; there was no escape. They were surrounded by imperial knights and more kept arriving every second. Even with the princess as a hostage, it was just a matter of time before they were recaptured.

"One more step and I kill her!" Alice shouted.

Each time the guards stepped closer and closer to them, narrowing the semicircle. They were still at a safe distance, but they wouldn't be for much longer. She was out of ideas, and the princess was the only thing that separated them from death. Suddenly, a cry broke the silence, drawing everyone's attention away from them.

"They've escaped! The prisoners have escaped! They've all been released from their cells! All of them! The dungeon's practically overrun! We need backup!"

Decus smiled confidently at Alexia.

Alexia couldn't believe it. "What in Martel's name…"

Any and all bystanders scattered in mindless panic; not very surprising considering the new development. Some knights broke off from their units to aid people in danger or suffering fits of hysteria. In a few seconds, the city had descended into total chaos. And Alice saw her chance.

"Decus! Now!"

Alice pushed the princess forward into Alexia, who was forced to grab her. Decus opened his iron maiden, raised his broadsword, and charged towards the distracted soldiers, sweeping it in wide arcs that slashed any who weren't fast enough to move aside.

"Alexia!" cried the messenger who had caused the uproar, running to her side, "Decus and Alice have escaped and the whole city is plagued with escaped convicts!"

Alexia's grip on her poleaxe tightened in frustration until her knuckles turned white. She ground her teeth together and snarled. She had been tricked.

"I heard you the first time. Thank you for your excellent work," she glared at the runner, "Now, if you value your job, position, or livelihood, you're going to clean up this mess you've made or Martel herself will rain judgement upon you."

The guard squeaked in assent. "You're orders milady?"

She assumed a thoughtful position, closing her eyes and massaging her forehead with her thumb and forefinger.

"Take the princess to a safe place. Have the knights divide themselves into various groups and go to all the different districts. Use whatever means necessary to round up anyone who refuses to surrender, or resists. I will take care of Decus and Alice. Personally."

"But ma'am, they're far too dangerous."

"That's an order!"

"Yes ma'am!"

(…)

Meltokio as a whole was in a panic, but the areas affected worst were the upper-class neighborhoods. Most of the criminals had decided to take a stroll around town and pick up a few 'souvenirs' before leaving the city. And in that part of the royal city, a crime was being committed that was so cliché that even Yuan would have groaned: a thief was violently relieving a frightened young woman of her jewellery as she screamed in vain for help. Oddly enough, her cries were answered.

"Those jewels aren't yours," said a man in bright pink clothing. His face was hidden beneath a white mask and a tacky black top hat–complete with a pair of peacock feathers–hid his hair, though a few crimson strands stuck out from behind the mask.

"W'o the 'ell ar you!" the thief demanded, aiming at him with a rudimentary knife.

"My name doesn't concern you, slimeball!" he exclaimed with practiced showmanship, unsheathing his sword. "Now return those jewels to the lady or feel the wrath of the Mysterious Masked Swordsman. Patented."

"So, oi'm supposed ta take o'dahs from a masked buffoon with a pretty pink ou'fi'? You _wish!_"

The mystery man waited for the thief to make the first move. He wasn't disappointed. The crook lunged, swinging his knife wildly. The swordsman dodged it effortlessly, and ended the fight quickly with a blow to the thief's back. His grip on the girl's accessories loosened and the rescuer caught them before they even hit the ground.

"I think that these jewels belong to you, madam," he said, returning the valuables.

The young woman took her jewellery back eagerly, covering her bushing checks with a lacy white fan.

"Thank you, uh, Mister Masked Swordsman."

"Nothing to thank me for," he answered suavely. "Wherever there's a girl in danger, the Mysterious Masked Swo—"

"Zelos, do something useful and give us a hand! And stop pandering to all the girls in town!" Marta shouted at the so-called 'Mysterious Masked Swordsman.'

"Oh c'mon, give me a break!" Zelos said, removing his mask revealing his face. The young lady blushed violently, fanning herself.

"Oh, wait until the others hear that the Chosen saved me!"

"I don't want to be a nag, but one more sword would be pretty helpful about now," Emil called from down the road, parrying the attacks of two criminals with his sword before letting loose with his _Raining Fangs_ arte, taking down a pair of escapees.

"Fine, fine, if you'll excuse me, miss."

Zelos ran towards Marta and Emil to help them with their opponents; there were quite a few fortunately, if his last fight was to be any indication, most of them were pitifully weak.

"Where are they all coming from?" Emil wondered aloud as he wounded a criminal who was about to attack Marta, who smiled back thankfully.

"Lighting blade!" Zelos incanted, staggering one of the convicts. The man fell to the ground, twitching as a good fifty volts of electricity coursed through him on its way to the ground. "Can't be sure, but it looks like there's been a prison break. I'd be surprised if it were anything else at least."

Finally the imperial knights appeared and began to round up the majority of the opposition. Most of the criminals began to make their getaway through the various side streets and alleyways at this point intending to avoid any direct confrontations with the law. This also meant they would have to climb down the city's walls, as the central staircases were a hub of activity.

"Chosen! Are you alright?" a nearby soldier asked.

"Yeah, yeah. Just tell me what's going on."

"I-I don't know, I was just sent here. We were about to take in two convicts who had taken the princess as a hostage and suddenly it was like the entire dungeon came stampeding out of the coliseum!"

Marta's face brightened immediately.

"Two criminals?" Marta asked, "Were they a blonde girl and a tall guy with purple hair?"

"Yeah, that's right…" the guard confirmed slowly, looking at Marta suspiciously. Her reaction to the bad news was far too positive to overlook. Zelos frowned at her and came up with a distraction.

"Is the princess alright?" he asked, hoping that the princess' welfare would do the trick.

"Huh? Oh, yes, she's fine, they didn't do her any harm."

"Well, that's a relief. I tell you, that would have been a problem."

"What can we do to help?" Emil asked.

The knight tapped a finger to the bottom of his helmet as though her were stroking his chin.

"The best thing for civilians like you can do is get inside and wait for an all clear, but if you really want to help, I'd say you could be most useful by looking around the city and helping anyone who looks like they're in a bind."

"Sure, I can do that." Zelos said. He gave the knight a quick solute and the man walked away. As soon as the soldier was out of earshot Zelos whirled on his female companion. "Marta! What the hell were you thinking? At least _try_ to avoid making us all look like witnesses!"

"I know, I know. I'm sorry… I'm just…happy that they're alive. I didn't want them to die."

"I swear; I may never understand you, Marta."

"Sorry to interrupt, but there's a guy with a monocle getting mugged down the street." Emil called back at the two of them, already running toward the scene by himself, "We should probably do something about that before something weird happens. Lets go!"

(…)

Decus and Alice were finally a safe distance from Meltokio.

Decus smiled and took a deep breath of fresh air. It smelled like life. Decus couldn't believe how close to death he had come, but his ice princess had come to save him.

'_Enh, that's actually pretty lame,'_ he thought.

"How are your wounds?" Alice asked, her voice thick with worry.

"Fine, fine— Just a few bruises. Hehe! Those guards fight like girls."

Alice didn't seem convinced so Decus pounded his fist on his own chest to prove that he was alright but when he did that, he bent over in pain and coughed.

"You idiot! You're making it worse. Don't move; I'll heal you!"

Alice came closer and prepared to cast First Aid but she suddenly remembered that she was still wearing the mana-inhibitor. She put a hand on the device and frowned. The piece of junk was a nightmare.

"So you finally stopped running, you cowards!" Alexia said, approaching them maneuvering her pole like a walking stick with each step she took.

"How dare you to call me a coward. If it wasn't for this thing," Alice said, patting the mana-inhibitor, "I'd have already shocked you so hard that your armor would fuse to your skin!"

"I don't give a damn about your excuses. It's time to pay for your crimes!"

"I won't let you put a hand on my dear Alice," Decus said, pointing his sword at Alexia. "You've done enough, my darling. Let me take care of this."

On any other condition, Alice would have refused, but she couldn't do anything without her pets or her spells. As much as she hated it, she would have to rely on Decus this time.

"Finish her, Decus!" she ordered, trying to keep her pride intact.

Decus charged at Alexia. He knew he wasn't at his best at the moment, but that was no excuse to ignore Alice's wishes.

He was the first to attack, but to his surprise, Alexia dodged it with ease, flipping backwards. Either she was startlingly fast or he was getting slower. She didn't waste a second and tried to impale him through the chest with the spike of her halberd and nearly succeeded. Undaunted, she launched a second, third and fourth attacks, all of them intended to skewer him from a safe distance. Decus managed to dodge every last one of them.

Alice was tired of watching, she wanted to join the action but she knew that if she tried anything, she would probably end wounded. She hated how useless she felt.

Alexia tried to impale Decus yet a fifth time. But this time Decus changed tactics. Instead of completely dodging her attack, he sidestepped and hit the shaft of her weapon with an upward slash that knocked Alexia off balance just long enough for him to attack her. Unfortunately, she recovered fast enough to block Decus' follow-up. Even so, she found herself being pushed backward by the sheer force of the sword's impact, her heels digging into the ground.

"Are you done yet?" he asked apathetically.

"Don't underestimate me!" Alexia shrieked furiously, adopting a different attack stance. She twirled her halberd in her hands and chanted an unfamiliar incantation:

"_Oh holy light, strike down these heathens with thy divine spear!"_

"_Holy Lance!"_

"Wasn't expecting that!" Decus yelped, diving out of the way as four pillars of light ascended from the ground nearby. When the shimmering blade of light hit the ground at the center of the spell, the explosive shockwave still sent him sprawling, despite the distance he had gotten from the point of origin.

"Stand back Alice. I don't want to get her blood on you." Decus said as though he hadn't just been struck by a second tier arcane arte. He flashed a winning smile as he picked himself up off the ground.

Alexia didn't give him enough time to recover. Once she was close enough she did a somersault and used the inertia to give additional strength to a _Fierce Demon Fang_ arte.

Decus parried once again and was about to counterattack but she had already launched another blow, forcing Decus to quickly parry it. Alexia began slashing extremely long swipes with her poleaxe. Any skilled warrior could have dodged the seemingly manic attacks, but she had noticed that Decus was limping slightly when her got up, favoring his right leg. It wasn't nearly enough to cripple him unfortunately, but it was enough to reduce the swordsman's agility, forcing him to block her attacks instead of dodging them. At the first chance she got, she kicked him hard in the stomach and disarmed him with a fierce blow.

Decus retreated until a tree stopped him from back-pedalling any further.

"Your time is at an end," she said, her expression eerily void of emotion.

Decus closed his eyes instinctively, but the attack didn't come. After waiting ten seconds, he hesitantly opened one eye to see what was going on. Alexia was before him, blushing as red as a tomato and breathing quickly. He knew what had happened immediately; and for the first time ever, his assumption might correct.

Alexia couldn't believe what was happening to her. She closed her eyes to concentrate and kill him, but it was impossible. The entrancing scent about the man was overriding all her other senses and instincts. It…no…_he_ had thoroughly taken her breath away. She staggered, kneeling down in front of him and dropping her weapon, finding herself unable to summon the strength required to hold it. She placed a trembling hand over her chest as she tried to catch her breath. Her heart was beating madly. His perfect body, his long purple hair, his deep blue eyes, and that manly and entrancing aroma. She didn't know what this feeling he was giving her was, but she liked it. He was _perfect!_ Wait… What was she thinking? She was supposed to be striking him down in the name of Martel! Why couldn't she just kill him? She was blushing like an idiot!

"I see you've noticed my—" Decus began, but Alice interrupted.

"Look, I'm not sure of what's going on, and while I can't bear to think that disaster you call a cologne could ever actually work, I'm not about to look this gift horse in the mouth. Let's _go!_"

"We'd better hurry then," Decus said, putting his sword back inside his iron maiden, "I think I can hear more knights coming."

Decus and Alice made a break for it, and had just managed to get out of sight by the time the imperial knights arrived at the scene.

When Decus disappeared, the strange effect he had on Alexia's body vanished with him.

"Alexia!" A knight shouted in a worried voice. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, yes…" she said, picking her halberd up and getting back on her feet, trying to hide her blush.

"Are you sure? You look sick."

"I'm perfectly fine!" she insisted, "Now search the forest! They can't be too far away!"

"Yes Madam Commandant!"

Alexia put a hand over her neck and checked her pulse. It was normal. She couldn't help but wonder what had happened to her and why she wasn't able to kill that fool.

**(…)**

**Make me know what you like or what you dislike to improve. From compliments to criticizes, any review will be welcomed.**


	4. The beginning

**Author notes:**** Well, thank you for the patience but my usual beta reader couldn't do her "job" and this chapter has been delayed a month, luckily for me the new one did a good job quite fast.**

**And now, enjoy the chapter and show me that you care about this fic by giving me a review. **

**(…)**

_**EPISODE 1: A NEW BEGINNING.**_

**Chapter 4: The beginning of the journey.**

**(…)**

**Mizuho.**

The tranquil and peaceful village of Mizuho became soon a riot of feminine squeals as the red haired ex-chosen, Zelos Wilder, entered in the town. It didn't take a lot of time for him to be surrounded by a bunch of teenagers excited by the arrival of such a sexy hero, and even if Zelos felt flattered by the random compliments at the beginning, the situation soon began became a little uncomfortable.

"Hehe- Yeah, yeah. Sure, sure. Of course, but I can't now. You are cute too, sweet lady. Yeah, yeah- Could you let me pass? Yeah, sure, but I need to go to see your chief- Do you mind! Sure, sure… Yeah, I like your look too."

When he finally managed to pass through the crowd and arrive to his destination, the chief's house, or as he liked to call it for fun: _The house of horrors_.

Zelos entered without asking and closed the door behind him, leaving at the other side of the door the girls who could still be heard. Zelos smiled, amused as some of the girls began to jealously say things about their 'lucky chief'.

Zelos went ahead walking over the scratchy wooden floor until he reached the shoji. He took the door from one side to open it, but when he had barely opened it a few inches suddenly a hand grabbed it and closed it forcefully. Zelos looked to his side to see a blue suited ninja.

"The chief is busy now."

"Nice to see you too, Orochi." Zelos answered with an obviously fake smile. "But as much as it pleases me to see you again I would like to have a talk with Sheena."

"As I told you, she is busy now and she can't see anyone."

"Oh, c'mon, don't be like that with me," Zelos complained unsuccessfully to Orochi who looked at him with a cold, stoic glance. Since convincing Orochi would be a titanic work, Zelos decided to change his strategy. "Sheena! I know you're there! Could you stop ignoring me and tell this alpha male bodyguard to step aside to let me in?"

Orochi frowned. "I'm not any kind of alpha male! The chief is busy with her work and you will leave by hook or by crook."

Zelos took some steps away and waved his hand trying to calm Orochi. "Okay, okay- I will wait outside until she is done with her _'personal stuff'_. How much time do you think it will take her to get her relief?" He asked loud enough to be sure that Sheena was able to hear him. "I guess that ten minutes should be enough."

"Okay, you win!" Sheena said from the other side of the shoji. "Let him in Orochi."

Orochi moved aside as he opened the door to allow Zelos enter the room.

Zelos half-covered his eyes with his hand and looked aside smiling.

"Oh, please Sheena, I don't want to enter in such a private moment."

"Zelos!" Sheena said, annoyed and blushing. "Stop being an idiot and enter already!"

"Well, if you want me in I guess I can't disobey the desires of the Mizuho chief, can I?" Zelos finished as he entered the room looking towards a really annoyed Orochi who closed the shoji door as soon as Zelos entered.

"Don't worry Orochi, you can leave!" Sheena said to her old friend.

"As you order, chief."

Sheena walked to the shoji and opened the door. "I've told you a thousand times not to call me chief. You can call me Shee-" but Orochi had already left before she could end her sentence. "-na. My, he's fast."

Sheena closed the door and looked behind her. Zelos was sat down cross legged over the floor, serving himself a cup of the tea that she had just prepared for herself.

"Please make yourself at home." Sheena said sarcastically.

"Sure!" Zelos answered taking off his shoes and launching them across the room.

Sheena face-palmed as she murmured some words that shouldn't be written. She finally sat before him, waiting for him to say whatever he had come to tell her. She waited, and waited, and waited, and kept waiting until she finally lost her patience.

"Okay Zelos, why are you here?"

"Wow, what? Can't an old friend come to say hello?"

"In the last two years you didn't come here even once." Sheena answered, annoyed. "If it wasn't because of our last little adventure we wouldn't have seen each other. So tell me Zelos, why are you here!" She asked in a more demanding way this time.

Zelos looked at his tea and took a deep breath. "I guess you are right. I don't have any excuses for my actions, but I thought that you didn't want to see me and- Well, it doesn't really matter. Let's do what I've come here to do."

Zelos put a hand under his clothes and took out a letter with the royal emblem engraved in wax and gave it to Sheena.

"I know that you won't like this, but the princess told me to give it to you."

"Does this has something to do about the King's murder?" Sheena said as she opened the envelope. "I was about to send a letter in condolence in the name of Mizuho."

"Yes and no," Zelos said as he put a few sugar teaspoons into the tea. "Just read it."

Sheena began to read the letter with an intrigued look on her face but as she continued reading the look on her face became more and more astonished. When she finished, she stood up with one simple question on her mind.

"Is she nuts!"

"I already tried to convince her, but I'm afraid that Hilda drove the decision by her emotions."

"But I can't go to chase and kill those two! I'm the chief of Mizuho now! Why did she choose me!"

"She wanted the same person that once was sent to kill Sylvarant's chosen."

"Can I come in?" Orochi asked from the other side of the shoji interrupting the conversation.

"Yes, you can." Sheena answered annoyed.

"I'm sorry for listening from the other side, but-"

"Then you shouldn't have been listening in the first place, don't you think?" Zelos said to the spy.

"I apologize," Orochi said bowing his head as Zelos rolled his eyes. "But might have the solution to this… I could take your place, Sheena."

Sheena looked down as she thought about what Orochi had said, but Zelos talked before she could give her opinion.

"I don't think it's a good idea. Now that the king has died the princess has become the ruler or Tethe'alla, and disobeying her could be taken as a betrayal."

"Maybe that's an exaggeration," Sheena said. "But our relationships with Meltokio have never been very good and I wouldn't like to be the one responsible for making it worse," Sheena closed her eyes and took a deep breath before announcing her decision. "Fine, I'll do it. Orochi, while I'm out, I want you to take care of Mizuho."

"But Sheena, you can't-"

"If you don't want to do it as my friend, I will have to demand you to as your chief." Sheena said in a serious tone.

Zelos was surprised by her words. He didn't expect her to use her authority like that, but she was the chief of Mizuho after all and her new responsibilities demanded her to be more authoritarian.

"I understand, chief." Orochi said, bowing with a hand over his chest as he left the room.

"I will prepare myself to go as soon as possible. You can leave now, Zelos."

"Me? Leaving?" Zelos said, chuckling. "I'm going with you my lovely banshee. There is no way that I could leave my most beautiful flower without care."

"What!" Sheena asked in surprise.

"Where did that surprised look come from? I bet that if I were Lloyd you wouldn't look so surprised or annoyed, hmmm… I can't really tell, let's call it surprinnoyed. You wouldn't look so surprinnoyed at the idea."

Sheena blushed as she took a back step. "That's- That's not true. It's just that the princess has only asked for me to go."

"Well, she didn't say that you had to go alone, did she?" Zelos smiled, finding humorous the uncomfortable situation he had put her in. "Besides, those two were skilled and you might need some help if you want to deal with them."

Sheena wasn't really convinced by his words, but she had been placed between the sword and the wall, and after all, Zelos had made some good points about her mission.

"Fine, you can come with me." Sheena said defeated. "But don't do anything funny!"

Zelos put a hand over his chest as if he had just being wounded. "Your doubts about me hurt my feelings. I don't know where that idea might have come from."

Sheena crossed her arms and looked at the red-haired man before her with a cold gaze. Zelos took a back step and put his hands in a defensive position.

"Okay, okay." Zelos put a hand over his chest and looked to the roof with a serious gaze. "I promise you that I will never touch your body, unless you asked me to do so, of course."

"As if that could happen." Sheena responded, rolling her eyes as he just smiled at her.

(…)

**Meltokio. **

"Sebastian, do you know where Zelos is?" Emil asked to the butler.

Sebastian put a hand under his chin and began to recall the last hours. "He went to palace quite early this morning. And once he came back he took a Rheaird and left without giving any explanation."

"Did he say where he was going?"

"No, he didn't say anything to me."

"Well, Marta has gone to the palace to ensure that her father was fine after all that happened yesterday so I guess that I could join her and find some answers myself."

"I see. Anyway Master Zelos said that you and Miss Marta could stay here as long as you want."

"Well, thank you." Emil said smiling and bowing his head a little. "I apologize for any inconvenience that we might have caused but we will be leaving as soon as possible, we are done here. If Zelos comes back tell him that we went to Palmacosta."

"I will. Have a nice travel."

"Sure." Emil said as he opened the door ready to leave, "and thank you for everything."

When Emil went to the palace he saw a little group of soldiers in front of the church that took his attention. They were dressed with white tunics with a green tree on their chests, their hands and feet were covered with metallic gauntlets and boots and they didn't wear any helm. It was obvious that they weren't imperial knights. Moved by the curiosity Emil approached the group of no more than twelve men to have a closer look to them when Alexia opened the door of the church and come outside.

"So, what did the Pope say, ma'am?"

"Our orders are to find and kill them." Alexia informed to her soldiers. "Alice is known by her dirty tricks, she would say anything in order to win, if you find her don't let her fool you, finish her as soon as you have the chance. Decus is a quite skilled swordsman, so don't try to fight him alone."

"And what about the rest of the criminals that escaped?"

"The imperial knights will deal with them. Our job is to take down Decus and Alice as soon as possible and make them pay for their crimes. Any other questions?" None of the soldiers said anything. "Then prepare yourselves, we will meet in Sybak tomorrow morning."

As soon as their little chat was over they left to the palace.

It looked like Decus and Alice had been able to escape. Emil began to have some conflictive feelings about it. Even if he didn't want them to be killed he knew that Alice wasn't the forgiving kind of person, and even if he hated it, part of him wanted her dead.

"With Alexia in charge everything will be fine." A random person said calling Emil's attention.

"It looks like here the people here like her a lot." Emil said.

"With reason, she comes from one of the richest families in Meltokio but she has always followed the teachings of Martel and has helped the people around her no matter their status. And now she is the leader of the Templars."

"The Templars?" Emil asked.

"Yeah. You aren't from here are you? The Templars are an elite force that work in the name of Martel; They are leaded by the pope. They are the ones in charge to impart the divine punishment of Martel upon the sinners and those against the church of Martel."

That answered some questions and made others much more intriguing, "I see, well thank you for your time but I must leave now."

Emil walked to the palace thinking about those Templars. "It looks like the Church has much more power in Tethe'alla than in Sylvarant." Emil murmured to himself not really knowing what to think about that.

When he finally reached enough to the enormous royal structure he saw Marta sitting over the steps with her hands under her chin and the most annoyed expression that her face could make. Emil quickly ran toward his friend.

"Marta! What happened?" The blonde asked concerned.

"Those guards didn't let me in. It looks like the princess is depressed and she doesn't want to see anyone. But without her permission I can't go to see my father."

"Don't worry!" Emil said in a cheering up voice. "I'm sure that he didn't do anything yesterday so he should be fine."

"I guess you are right." She said not really convinced of her own words.

Emil put a hand over the shoulder of his companion and smiled to her.

"Believe me. I'm not saying this just to cheer you up. He will be fine, don't worry."

Marta looked to her mate and smiled back to him. "Thank you Emil."

"No problem, that's what I'm here for."

"Talking about it… Have you made a decision already?"

"About the question you asked me the other day?" Emil asked.

"Yes." She simply answered as if it was something obvious. "So, did you make a decision?"

"Yes I did." Emil answered smiling as he scratched the back of the head.

"And?" Marta asked biting her lower lip. She hadn't been so nervous in all her life. The answer to that question meant a lot to her. Her disappointment or her happiness depended of the answer of that question.

"Yes, I will." Marta smiled in joy at Emil's answer. "I have decided that I will move in with you to your father's house in Palmacosta. I don't want to go back with my aunt anyway."

Marta stood up and embraced him tightly as she pressed her check against his.

"I'm really happy to hear you saying that!"

Emil embraced her timidly not really sure about how to react.

"I'm happy too Marta but I don't want you to get the wrong idea. I'm just moving in with you in the same house. We are just going to live together. It's nothing more than..."

But without letting him go further in his explanation Marta, driven by the enthusiasm, kissed Emil in the lips who taken completely by surprise didn't know how to react. It took her about five seconds to notice what had she done, and when she did, she pulled apart her lips and looked at the frozen and blushed face of Emil. He almost looked scared.

"Oh my… I'm sorry Emil, I know it was out of place. I was just so happy about it that I couldn't control myself."

Emil, completely blushed, turned around and lowered his blushed face.

"It's-It's fine Marta." He was so nervous that he barely could talk. "It-It-It doesn't matter. We- We should be going already."

Marta smiled to herself at his shy reaction and left with him the royal city.

(…)

**For****est.**

_The first rays of the sun illuminated the forest while the annoying birds began chirp unceasingly._

_Decus sat over the grass, supporting his back against a tree as he held his sword with one hand and played with the grass with the other. His eyes began to close slowly tired because of the long day. His head soon accompanied his eyelids as each second made it more and more relaxed, but once he closed his eyes completely and the sweet darkness was the only thing he could see he quickly opened them again and looked around alertly to ensure that everything was fine. He finally stood up and slapped his face as he began to make some exercises to keep himself awaken while he repeated 'don't fall asleep' over and over again in a mantric way. _

_It had been a long night and without Alice's pets he had had no choice but to be the one performing guard duty during the night despite how tired he was. But after all Alice had done for him, it was the least he can do. Anyway it didn't take him a lot of time to close his eyes falling half-asleep while standing, losing the perception of time momentarily. When he subconsciously noticed that he almost had fallen sleep he opened his eyes in alert; this time Alice was standing a few feet before him smiling wickedly._

"_Ahhh!" Decus shouted in fear. "Oh, it's you. You scared me for a second, Alice."_

_Alice took a walked closer to his companion until their bodies were pressed together. Contrary to what one could expect for his usual behavior Decus blushed and began to breathe quickly because of her unexpected approach._

"_I want to tell you something Decus." She said almost whispering as she stood on tiptoe to be as close of his mouth as she can. "I love you."_

_As Alice approached her lips Decus closed his eyes and lowered his head while he used his hands to embrace her. The shy kiss on the lips soon become a wet passional tongue kiss. He suddenly opened his eyes breaking the kiss as he felt a strong pain piercing his guts. Alice had stabbed him._

"_I love how it tastes." Alice said in her sweetest voice as she licked the blood sliding from his lips._

_Decus couldn't understand anything. "Why?" He asked as a tear of sadness rolled down his cheek. _

_Alice only smiled and twisted the dragger in his gut, making him bow in pain._

"_Because I love you." She said smiling to him as he slowly fell supporting himself against the tree as he looked at her with a hand in his mortal wound. "I love you Decus, and I can't let these feelings make me weak. A person who is able to kill the one she loves, is a person without weakness."_

_Decus vision slowly began to fade away._

"_I'm sorry Alice… In the end," he took his last breath. "I couldn't help you." _

_And with those words Decus died in the hands of his beloved._

"_It was the only way." Alice said closing his dead eyelids._

(…)

Alice opened the already half opened Iron Maiden that she had used to cover herself from the wind, from inside and stood up yawning and opening the arms wide.

"_What a weird dream."_ She thought as she rubbed her eyes.

"Good morning princess."

"Yeah, sure. What do we have for breakfast?"

"Fruits," Decus asked smiling.

"Fruits?" Alice asked obviously disappointed "What kind of breakfast is that!"

"We didn't get any groceries, and I didn't find any animals to hunt…" Decus took two pieces of fruit and gave them to her. "This is all I have found."

"You never fail to disappoint me." Alice said as she took the fruits. It wasn't what she would have liked to eat but it was better than nothing. "What have you taken for breakfast?" She asked accusingly.

"Nothing," He answered still looking to the ground ashamed by his failure to please Alice. "That's all I found."

Alice was just about to bite the second piece of fruit when she heard that. For a moment she looked at Decus and consider gave him what should be his half of the food but she soon erased those thoughts and began to eat the last piece of fruit. For a moment she considered putting another person's well-being before hers. That second was enough to worry her. But that person was no one other than Decus.

Alice gave a second look to the barely half eaten piece of fruit and, giving a deep sigh, tossed it to Decus who caught it in the air before it could touch the dirt.

"There, you can eat the remains."

Decus looked the half eaten fruit hungrily but instead of eating it he stood up and tossed it back to Alice's hands.

"I don't need to eat." He said closing his eyes and smiling arrogantly. "My body can last for days without food."

Alice took the fruit and launched it to his smiling face with enough strength to make his nose bleed.

"I said eat it you idiot!" She demanded. "With this thing around my neck I can't summon my pets or use any spells. You are the closest thing to a pet that I have right now! So eat it."

Decus brushed his nose and began to eat the piece of fruit.

"Damn! I need to get rid of this thing!" Alice said as she moved the mana inhibitor trying to get rid of it like an alley cat with a collar.

"That's not a problem. I know someone who could take it off."

"What! Who! Where!" Alice asked as she couldn't believe what she had just heard.

"The same guy who released all the prisoners."

"Didn't you do it?"

"Well… I freed Nickolay and he freed the prisoners to use them as a distraction, so in some kind of way I did it."

"So that Nickolay guy could get rid of this thing?" Alice asked, pointing at her metallic collar.

"Well, he said he could if he was back in his laboratory in Sylvarant."

"Great!" Alice said smiling. "We can go to whatever place he lives and force him to break this thing."

"Well… There is actually a good and a bad news." Decus said. "The good news is that we wouldn't need to force him. He was a half-elf too and I think he wouldn't mind to take it from you. The bad news is that I didn't ask him where he was from."

"Dumbo… Well at least we know that he was planning to go to Sylvarant so he will probably take a boat to go to Palmacosta." Alice stood up and looked to Decus. "The closest port is near Sybak if we leave now we should be there at night. So let's go! We can't lose any second here."

"Okey-Dokey." Decus said as he put his sword inside his Iron-Maiden and ran to catch up Alice.

(…)

(…)

**Now I will give you one of my favorites recipes.**

**Recipe,**___"__**How to get a new chapter.":**_

**1º Click the review button.**

**2º Write something: Opinion, feedback, cheers, almost anything will work.**

**3º Wait until the author reads it.**

**4º Wait some time and enjoy the new chapter.**


	5. Over the sea

_**Author note:**_

**Here is the Chapter five of the fic. I hope that this time I get more reviews because to tell you the truth since I don't see much more fics about Decus and Alice and I almost get no reviews I get the feeling that I'm the only one who likes these characters and that makes me want to give up. I would like you to show me that I'm wrong with your reviews.**

**Of course this story is not only about Decus and Alice even if they are the main characters. Don't worry others will appear (and get more importance) as the story goes on.**

**Anonymous Reviews:**

_Claves:_ Thank you, I will try my best.

* * *

**EPISODE 1: A NEW BEGINNING.**

**Chapter 5: Over the sea**

**Sybak's port**

Alice and Decus entered Sybak's port covered by two robes that hid them from head to toe, the only body part that remained exposed were their mouths and noses, the rest of their faces remained covered by the shadow projected by the hood. Alice was wearing a plain black robe while Decus was wearing a white one with black feathers covering the shoulders in the most fashionable way, if there was any fashion for the tunics. It was obvious that not calling the attention wasn't Decus's strong point.

"I'm surprised that no one has noticed us, especially with that wardrobe that you carry everywhere." Alice said casually in low voice so as not to call the attention of the people around them.

Decus shrugged, not knowing a better answer.

As they kept walking they noticed that the port had increased its vigilance. The number of Imperial knights was unusual to watch a port. It was clear that they weren't just there to watch over the docked boats. In fact, a mini army was waiting in the port! Luckily for them they seemed distracted doing other stuff, but that didn't change the fact that it was going to be hard to leave Sybak without being taken captive again.

"Damn!" Alice cursed. "How are we supposed to leave this place?"

"You worry too much." Decus said, trying to calm her down. "What if we go to that inn and eat something? We might find someone to take us to Sylvarant."

"Are you an idiot? We have bigger things to worry about than what we have to eat! Like who is going to take us freely to Sylvarant? Did you sell your brain to buy one of those useless charms!"

But her stomach didn't seem to agree with her since the mere pronunciation of the word 'eat' made it make sounds.

"Fine," Alice said, feeling betrayed by her own body "Let's go to get something to eat. But how are we going to pay for it? We have no money and we can't make a scene with all those knights everywhere."

"Don't worry about that." Decus said with a self-confident smile. "I have the perfect solution to that problem."

Alice followed Decus, intrigued, as he walked towards a grocery store, just before he entered. She had no idea of what could have been going on in his mind. Then Decus knelt before a vagrant that looked asleep or possibly dead and took the gald that he had inside his torn hat.

"See. Problem solved." Decus said, turning back to Alice with the stolen money in his hand.

"Hey that's my money!" The vagrant shouted, much to Decus' and Alice's surprise. They thought that he was asleep. "Gi'me my money back!"

"What the… Shut up!"

But that didn't help the situation and a pair of imperial knights that were close quickly went towards them. And of course Alice's first thought was-

"We are screwed!"

With the exception that it wasn't a thought and she said it aloud.

"What's going on here!" The knight at the head of a small group that had come to investigate asked.

Decus was completely mute. He had no idea of how to get out of a situation like that. He looked at his left side where Alice should have been, but she wasn't there anymore.

"This guy was stealing ma money!"

The knight looked to the vagrant and then looked at Decus, who was trying to hide his face within the hood.

"Hmmm… I see what's going on here." The knight said, touching the black feathers of Decus's tunic with the tip of his fingers as if he was trying to deduce the quality of his robes.

"Damn!" Decus thought.

"Take him!" The imperial knight said pointing the vagrant with his hand. "A year in the cells will teach him something."

"What!" The vagrant asked in surprise. "No! No! It was him!" He began to shout as the knight took him. "He took my money! No! I don't wanna go to the cells! It was him! He did it!" And as the knight carried the man away his loud screams began to slowly fade into silence.

"I hope you are right, man! That will teach him!" The knight said to Decus, proud of his feat.

"Ye- Yeah, thank you." Decus said as he twisted his head to avoid the eye contact with the knight.

"What are you hiding in there?" The knight asked coming closer to Decus.

"No-nothing… I'm sick… cough* cough*"

"Could it be… A lock of hair of your beloved!"

"…What?"

"Yeah! Isn't that Iron Maiden one of those lucky charms from the Lezareno company?"

"Oh, that! Yeah." Decus said breathing in relief.

"And tell me, does it work? I might buy one myself if it does."

"Meh… I don't think so… But I keep it just in case it's defective and it takes longer than it should because of that."

"Nice…" The guard said, nodding as he stretched the last part of the word.

"Well, yeah… Thank you for the help."

"No problem dude, I was doing my job. Take the criminals."

"Sure thing. Keep it up!" Decus said walking backwards and nodding as he tried to leave the place as soon as possible.

Once he was enough faraway, Alice rejoined Decus so silently, it was as if she hadn't left.

"So, how much gald did we get?" She asked.

"Hmm… Let me see…" Decus began add in a low voice as he counted the gald. "Enough for us both to have a hot meal." He announced.

"Let's go then."

The pair searched for the cheapest looking restaurant and entered. The hygiene of the place was quite questionable and to eradicate any kind of doubt about the place: with Decus' second step he trampled a cockroach. They began to doubt that the food there was even edible.

"So, what do you want?" A fat man asked, cleaning the grease of his hands on his T-shirt.

Alice looked at the menu wondering what she could eat.

"Some chops." She finally said giving a disgusted look to the man who had hair in parts of the body that she didn't know could have hair.

"We only have soup!" The guy said, scratching his armpit.

"Two soups, then." Decus told the man since Alice seemed too busy looking away with a hand over her mouth, trying not to vomit.

The man put a dipper into a pot behind him and filled two dishes.

"Here you go!" The man said giving the soup.

Alice took a tablespoon and looked at the soup carefully, searching for anything that could have. She let the fluid drop from the spoon and repeated the process over and over again.

"Don't worry Alice. Look." Decus blew over the soup in his spoon. He put it inside his mouth and drank it. "See, it's sa-" Decus gagged as he took a curly hair out of his mouth.

Alice looked at the cook and realized he was bald.

"…I will pass…" She said moving her dish aside.

"WHERE IS AIFREAD!" A man shouted bursting in the tavern and gaining everyone's attention. "DON'T HIDE FROM ME! I KNOW YOU ARE HERE!"

The man was six feet tall and whore a tight T-shirt that marked all his prominent muscles. However, the most noticeable part of his body wasn't his muscles or face that was red with rage, but the pulsating neck vein that looked as if it was about to explode. Whoever Aifread was, he had enraged the wrong guy.

"Oh my… This is going to be fun." Alice muttered as she rubbed her hands, amused.

Then, as if it was a domino effect, people began to move aside, making a corridor to a lonely table located behind Alice for the enraged man at the door of the tavern. The mysterious guy stomped across the wooden floor with force, pushing anyone who wasn't fast enough to move out of his way to the table, and Alice wasn't an exception.

"Ow!"

Of course, the man didn't apologize. Instead, he took the table with one hand and threw it to the side, revealing a man dressed with black corduroy pants, a white shirt and a dark brown waistcoat.

"So here is where my contact lens was!" The guy under the table said.

"Aifread!" The muscular man shouted, lifting the man under the table by the collar.

"Hey! It's you!" Aifread said, faking a smile as he tried to hide the fear in his voice. "So, ummm… How is your sister!"

That comment seemed to irritate the aggressor more, since he responded by embedding Aifread in the wall.

"You, damn sea scum! How could you take her purity!"

"I took her purity? Whoa, whoa, calm down, calm down. I can swear to you that I wasn't the first one who got a ride in that boat!"

It was hard to tell if Aifread just wasn't the best person at choosing the correct words to get out of a bad situation, had just lose all hope of getting out safe from this situation, or if it was a mixture of both. One thing was for sure, that comment only made the angry man even angrier, if that was possible.

"Damn bastard!" He screamed. The man lifted his fist, ready to punch Aifread when someone tapped his back to get his attention.

"Excuse me, mister strong man." Alice said, using her baby talk voice. "Could you turn the head a second, please?"

"What!" the man snapped, turning his head. As soon as he did, Alice threw the boiling soupa bowl of boiling hot soup into the man's face, making him scream in pain as he covered his burning face with both hands. Unsatisfied by that, Alice kicked his crotch and, as he knelt there, moaning in pain, she broke the dish over his head, knocking him out cold as he slumped to the floor.

"Do-not-ever-dare-to-touch-me-AGAIN!" She said kicking the man viciously with each word she in the tavern freaked out at the unbelievable scene.

"Wow… That was… Unexpected." Aifread said as he readjusted his shirt collar and cleared his throat. "Well, thank you for everything and bye-bye!"

Aifread put on his black pirate coat ready to leave when a foot stretched across his path, tripping him and making him fall to the floor.

"Ouch!"

Alice stood on him, letting all of her weight rest on his back.

"Well, well, well…" She said in a playful voice. "You aren't very polite are you?"

"I'm in a hurry so if you don't mind I would like to leave this place as soon as possible."

"What a happy coincidence. Judging from your clothes, I would say that you are a sailor."

"A sailor?" Aifread said, offended. "I'm Aifread the Legendary pirate."

"A pirate! That's even better because we need to leave this place."

"Don't tell me. And you thought that I would carry you because you helped me. I'm sorry little girl but I didn't ask for any help. In fact I had it all under control." He answered arrogantly.

"Demand a favor from you? What kind of girl are you taking me for?" Alice asked in a sad childish voice. "No, no, no… I would never do something like that. Your soup!" She demanded to her mate.

"Alice…" Decus whispered. "Maybe you didn't notice but everyone is leaving the place. I think that we have called too much attention."

"Shut up and give me your soup! I'm about to solve everything."

Decus took his dish and gave it to Alice. "OK, but we need to hurry up."

Alice took the burning dish and held it over Aifread's face. "If you don't carry us with you, I might give you some soup, too. Your friend loved it." She said, looking to the unconscious man. "If I were you I would decide soon because this dish is beginning to get heavy."

"You are wasting your time, lady."

Alice put an annoyed gaze and looked to Decus.

"Pull down his pants." She said calmly.

"WHAT!" Aifread said scared. "Wait! Wait! Wait! I have just changed my mind. Why don't you and your friend come with me in my boat?"

Alice emptied the dish onto the floor and got off Aifread so he could stand.

"I knew that a kind gentleman like you would never be able to leave a helpless damsel in distress to her fate." She said, once again using her cute voice.

"You are far away of from being a damsel." Aifread muttered to himself as he dusted his clothes with the palm of his hands. "Well, we should leave before the imperial knights come to see what's going on here. They will be here in at the blink of an eye."

The group left as fast as possible, trying not to attract the attention of the knights that were marching into the tavern.

"Here we are. That's my boat." Aifread said, pointing to the port where his boat was docked.

Decus looked impressed to it. It was an enormous metallic war ship, armed with two rows of cannons at port and starboard and what seemed to be artillery cannons crossed all across the stern.

"That's incredible…" Decus said amazed. "I have to say that I had my doubts about you. But this boat… Well, this changes everything."

"Yeah. The 'Martel's Hope' is a great ship. Fast, destructive and almost indestructible. The horror of the five seas." Aifread said, nodding. "But sadly that's not my boat. That's the flagship of Meltokio's navy." Then he pointed to the boat docked beside the 'Martel's Hope', a much simpler timber boat that wasn't bigger than a fishing boat.

"Are we going to travel in that piece of junk?"

"Well, mister… That 'piece of junk', as you call it, is the 'Millenary dolphin', fastest boat of the five seas. It won the race of Flanoir."

"Sure… Where did you get it, in a junkyard." Decus scoffed.

"No, I won it in a card game."

"Whatever." Alice said before the two men could continue their discussion. "Let's just get on the ship and leave this place."

"After you, my dear." Decus said getting aside while he bowed allowing Alice enter first.

* * *

**Millenary Dolphin, in the middle of the sea.**

"Alice, why did you do that back at the inn? I could have dealt with him for you. In fact, I was about to do it."

"What do you mean?" Alice said with a suspicious look. "I can defend myself, I don't need anyone to protect me."

"I-I know Alice…" Decus swallowed saliva nervously, he had to choose the correct words. "I know, Alice but with that thing at your neck you can't properly defend yourself. You don't need to prove anything, just let me help you now."

"What!" Alice shouted. "I can defend myself! I don't need anyone to help me! I can handle with it on my own! I don't need you or my pets! I'm not weak anymore!"

"I-I didn't mean it like that." Decus said, taking some back steps. "Just let me explain myself."

"Out of my cabin!"

"But-but…"

"NOW!"

Decus left the cabin as fast as he could. It wasn't the first time he had said something stupid or inappropriate, but it was the first time that Alice had become so mad at him for doing it. Yeah, she was cold with him and usually treated him like trash, but this was different, and he couldn't figure out why.

"Damn it." Decus said to himself as he watched the horizon. The sea was calm, the moon was full and there was no cloud hiding the starry sky. It was a perfect night, but not for Decus.

"Hey! What's going on? Any problem with the girl?" Aifread asked from his position at the rudder as he took a deep gulp of his bottle of rum, and cleaned his mouth with his hand.

Decus went upstairs towards Aifread but didn't say a word to him.

"Haha! I knew it was that girl." Aifread said to him. "She has you in the hook doesn't she? She doesn't give anything to you, even if all you do is give everything to her."

"It's not like that."

"Believe me, I know those kinds of girls." He said, taking another gulp of rum. "You will never be able to do anything with her. The sooner you forget her, the better." Aifread gave a final gulp and offered his bottle to Decus. "Here, take a drink. It will help."

Decus took the bottle and blanched at the smell of its contents.

"I don't know how this can help me. Alcoholic drinks are unhealthy."

"Oh, C'mon, don't be a pussy. You are only going to live once. And I bet that girl is more unhealthy that the rum, so why don't you give it a drink. It will help you! Trust me! I know about these things."

* * *

"Who does he think he is!" Alice said lying over the bed.

Alice blew annoyedly as she thought about what had happened an hour and a half ago. "Whom am I trying to fool?" She asked as she rubbed her forehead with two fingers. "I have been too tough on him this time. Maybe I should check on him just to be sure that he hasn't done anything stupid."

Alice stood up and went out of the cabin.

"This thing is driving me crazy." She said touching the metallic device around her neck.

The powerless sense that the artifact had created on her was too much to handle, she had never felt so impotent since she was in the orphanage, and she knew very well what happened to her back then and she wasn't going to allow something like that to happen again. Of course, without anyone to blame for her current status, and since Decus was the only one close to her, she was making him pay for it all. And even though she knew that she was being quite unfair with him, she wasn't intending to apologize for it.

As she got closer to top deck, she began to hear Aifread and Decus singing some kind of pirate song, the sounds getting louder and louder as she got closer.

"_I fight, 'tis for vengeance! I love to see flow,_

_At the stroke of my sabre, the life of my foe._

_I strike for the memory of long-vanished years;_

_I only shed blood where another sheds tears,_

_I come, as the lightning comes red from above,_

_O'er the race that I loathe, to the battle I looove."_

"Lovely song, but what's going on here?" Alice shouted to the pair as she came up from below-deck.

"Aliiiiice!" Decus said, looking more than just a bit tipsy. "I want to tell you that what-whatever you choose to do-" Decus stopped to take a swallow of rum. "I want to tell you that whatever you choose to do I'm perfectly fine with it because I-" Decus stopped his speech to put his hand over his mouth as he felt vomit move up his mouth and he quickly ran to the ship's rail to puke.

Alice looked on, disgusted at the spectacle while Aifread laughed out loud.

"Is he drunk? But he never drinks." Alice asked and answered herself.

Aifread dried his tears. "Hahaha! That explains a lot!"

"Because even if you don't give a damn about it, I love you!" Decus shouted opening his arms wide and falling over on the wooden floor.

"Yep!" Aifread said, looking at him. "He needs to get used with to it."

"Whatever… Why don't you take him and carry him to his room." Alice demanded.

Aifread went to Decus' body and took the bottle of rum from his hand. "Me! He's your mate, not mine!".

"Don't you know who I am! I'm…" Alice paused to think about what was she going to say. She decided to try to get what she wanted in another way.

"Could you please carry him?" Alice said in a childishly seductive voice. "You seem to be a strong guy."

"Forget it!"

Alice walked next to him and put a finger over his chest and began to move it up and down, never breaking eye contact.

"If you help me, maybe I could return the favor to you in some way." She purred.

"Why didn't you say that from the start? I will be more than glad to help such a cutie like you!" Airfread agreed quickly.

"I knew that you were my kind of man." Alice said, biting her lower lip.

More than happy, Aifread lifted Decus up and put his left arm over his shoulder to help Decus to walk and half-carried him to his room.

"I promise… I will never drink again." Decus said, staggering.

Aifread himself couldn't help but chuckle at the comment. "If I only got a gald every time I have heard that quote…" he wished.

With more or less difficulties Aifread finally managed to carry Decus to his room and dropped him over the corner of the bed unceremoniously.

"Time for the reward…" The seaman said in a singsong voice rubbing his hands.

"Of course." Alice said smiling at him, only this time it wasn't a kind smile, but that didn't seem to bother Aifread.

"Let's go to my cabin." Aifread suggested. As soon as he crossed the door Alice closed it behind him. "Hey! What are you doing?" he demanded through the door

Alice opened the door just enough to show half of her face to the pirate on the other side. And then she used the same voice that she had used a few moment ago to manipulate the sailor. "What? Did this childish voice make you think that I was a vulnerable and innocent girl who needed a strong man? Did you think by my words that I was insinuating that you would be able to do something with me?"

"Hell yeah!"

"Ohhhhhhh…" Alice changed to a fake sad voice. "I feel really sorry for you now. It really wasn't my intention to make you think something like that to get what I wanted."

"But we had a deal! What am I supposed to do with this!" He said aiming to his pants.

"Solve it yourself!" Alice answered coldly as she closed the door in his face.

She went to the bed and looked carefully at her options, and what she could do. She could push Decus aside and take the bed for herself, or share it with him. After thinking about her options she decided to do the first one and so she proceeded to get into the bed and push Decus off it with her feet but something stopped her.

"Meh… It isn't worth it. After all he is only on the corner of the bed." She thought. And with she pulled the sheets over herself.

* * *

The next morning Alice opened her eyes just to be welcomed by Decus. "Good morning my dear princess." He greeted happily.

"Oooooooooh…" Alice yawned closing her eyes and covering her mouth with her hand. "What are you doing?" She asked when she saw Decus over the floor tangled in bandages as like a fly in a spider web.

"Well… It has a good explanation."

"It does?" She asked arching an eyebrow.

"Well, I wanted to change my bandages so I took the roll and… somehow I ended my leg caught in it and before I knew it… Well you can see what happened."

"I'm surprised that you haven't hanged yourself." Alice stood up, took the bandages and began to do it properly.

"We will be in Palmacosta in thirty min-." Aifread announced as he walked into the room, pausing as he saw the pair without their tunics. Obviously, the man had recognized them. "-utes." he finished.

"How annoying…" Alice said rubbing her forehead as she and Decus stood up. "If you only had knocked at the door before entering."

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Aifread asked, scared.

"I can't take any risks. Decus! You already know what to do."

* * *

_**Author note:**_

**Reviews will be really appreciated. I don't need great reviews, you can if you want, all I need is to see that I'm not wasting my time by writing about these characters since as I said before when I come to I feel like I'm the only one how cares about Decus and Alice, and that, sometimes makes me want to quit. I need your reviews to see that I'm not the only one here who like them. Ofcourse this story is not only about them so if you want to review anything else, critize it, or just give me your support I'm fine with it, I only need to see that I'm not doing this for nothing.**


	6. New faces

**Author notes:**** I have to apologize for the delay in the release of this chapter but it is finally here. Thank you to all the reviewers, is good to see that I'm not doing this for nothing. Your support is really appreciated.**

**Anonymous reviewers:**

_**-**__**Naoko Minami:**_** Thank you for the support.**

_**-**__**Sturm und drang:**_** You have chosen as a nick the name of the best Mystic Arte that will ever exist. I have to admit that is fun to use the "evil" characters as main characters. Even when they do good stuff they don't do it in the most correct way. I'm glad that you like my fics, thank you for the review.**

_**-Aramis:**_** Thank you for the review. I also like D/S pairs.**

* * *

**EPISODE 1: A NEW BEGINNING.**

**Chapter 6: New faces.**

**Flagship of Meltokio's navy, 'Martel's Hope'**

Marta woke up with the first light of morning. She and Emil had been invited onto the flagship of Meltokio's navy by Alexia, and now they were going back to Palmacosta, her home town. The first thing she did was check on how Emil was, and as she expected, he was asleep. Marta couldn't help but smile at him as he breathed calmly. She finally got up and dressed herself before leaving the cabin, ready to take a calm walk on the top deck. Marta went out and took a deep breath as she yawned and stretched her arms while the sea breeze caressed her face and hair. It was the perfect morning. But her perfect morning soon was crashed by Alexia's encouraging commands to her troops.

"Run faster, you bunch of pussies!" Alexia shouted to her soldiers. "The one who gets tired first will be on guard duty for the next three nights!"

Maybe she wasn't trying to encourage them as much as scare them. But anyway, Alexia was better than Alice teaching discipline, or at least her methods and punishments were less cruel than Alice's. A chill climbed Marta's back as she remembered some of Alice's abusive disciplinary methods.

An Imperial knight suddenly appeared, running towards Alexia, waving in his hands in the air. "Ma'am! Ma'am!" he shouted.

Alexia interrupted her orders and commanded the rest of the soldiers to continue with the exercises as she came closer to the knight who had just called her attention. "Yes? What is it! I hope is important." she demanded.

"We are arriving at Palmacosta." The knight announced trying to recover his suffocated catch his breath. "We will be there in less than an hour."

"Perfect! Let's get ready to land!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

Marta didn't waste a single second. As soon as she heard the news she went running to the cabin she and Emil were using to wake him up.

"Emil get ready! We're arriving at Palmacosta!" she said, shaking the boy slightly.

"Wh- Whaaaaat…" He said, yawning and rubbing his eyelids as he tried to understand what the blot that was before him was telling him.

"We're arriving at Palmacosta."Marta repeated.

Emil sat up on the bed and finally realized that the blot that was talking to him was no none other than Marta. "Already?"he asked, surprised.

Marta smiled and nodded in response.

"OK… Let's get ready then." He answered, not really enthusiastic, to Marta's disappointment.

She wanted to ask him if he was worried about something or if something was wrong, but after thinking about it twice, she decided that he had just awakened and that it was normal if he wasn't in the best mood possible. So she decided to let his answer pass. After all he never had been the most enthusiastic guy in the world.

* * *

**Palmacosta**

When the flagship finally arrived at Palmacosta, its metallic housing ridiculed the simple and outdated wooden boats that were tied in the port. As it came closer, its intimidating presence made some people run away while others came closer, intrigued by the curiosity. When the enormous flagship finally landed, even the bravest person took a step back.

"Home, sweet home!" Marta shouted happily as she walked down the ramp that was lowered to allow passengers to disembark. "C'mon, Emil!"

"Calm down, Marta." Emil said from behind her. When he saw all the people looking at them, a question crossed his mind. "What are doing all those people down there?"

"I don't know… I don't think that they are here to welcome use for all we have done. Don't take me wrong, I don't want to be praised for it, but people could be a little more considerate." Marta pouted.

"Yeah… I understand what you mean. It's as if we haven't done anything at all."

Alexia coughed from behind to call the teens' attention.

"Kids, stop the chat and go down faster. We are in a hurry here, and you are blocking the only path for me and my troops." The woman said, annoyed.

"Oh… Yeah, sorry." Emil answered scratching his hair and going down faster to let Alexia and her troops finally land.

When they were finally down, the Templars and the Imperial Knights took a military formation in the middle of the harbor. The mass of curious people began to leave as soon as they saw the Church of Martel's insignia on the Templar's armor. Someone could think that there was no reason for that but after all the misfortunes that they had suffered at the hands of the neighboring continent, the people of the city had become much more fearful.

Alexia gave her orders, not seeming to care about the current situation of the town. "Listen! You will divide in groups of two, register all the boats, register the town and try to find any information about our two targets. If you find them do go against them alone, they are too dangerous. Understood!"

"Ma'am! Yes, ma'am!" the knights chorused in response.

"Leave!"

Alexia then called the brunette's attention. After all, she hadn't taken her with them just to do her a favor. "Marta! I would like you to inform the person in charge of this town of our arrival." She said, looking around. "It looks like we might have given the wrong impression here."

"OK. Let's go Emil!"Marta said.

Emil nodded and accompanied Marta to the Town Hall.

"Good, good, good…" A mysterious man said as he clapped his hands with a calm smile as he approached to the knights.

His smooth hair was long and as black as a roach. His gaze was calm, as if he had everything under control. The man was dressed with a ruffled, crimson shirt covered by an opened and elegant black coat that went down to his knees. The ends of the black tights that covered his legs were lost into his long, black boots. In his left hand he carried a little black briefcase.

"You have made a great show here." The man said, looking around him

"Who are you!" Alexia asked, coming closer to him while using her lance as a cane.

"I should be the one asking you that." He responded.

"I'm Alexia from Meltokio. I am the leader of the Templars and of these Imperial Knight troops. I will ask you again: who are you and why you are in our way!"

"My… Those Tethe'allans." He murmured to himself, loud enough to be heard. "They always think that they can do whatever they want, wherever they want."

"She asked you a question! Didn't you hear her!" An imperial knight demanded, unsheathing his sword and pointing it at the stranger.

"My…" The guy said, holding his forehead with his hand. "So much arrogance."

"Soldier! Sheathe your sword!" Alexia ordered the knight.

"This Sylvaranti is disrespecting us and our army!" he objected.

"Disrespecting?" He chuckled. "How amusing… I first need to respect you to disrespect you."

"Enough! I will shut his filthy mouth!" The knight charged the man, ignoring his superior's orders. He was ready to teach a lesson to the arrogant Sylvaranti.

With incredible speed and skill, the man opened his briefcase and took out a violin. He put it over his shoulder, accommodating his head to the instrument, and took the bow with the other hand. Some knights began to chuckle at that, but it didn't seem to bother the musician. As the knight came closer, he began to play a dramatic music, that quickly became faster and grew sharper and suddenly, from nothing, magic runic symbols submerged in a score began to surround the musician, following the rhythm of the grotesque melody.

"Dark grip!" After the musician pronounced those two words, six arms made of black smoke came from the ground and grabbed the knight by his limbs and lifted him several feet from the ground. Following the rhythm of the music, the hands, sharp as claws, began to remove his armor as he the musician kept playing the notes with his violin. One by one, the hands removed all the armor pieces until the knight was dressed in nothing but his underpants.

"Aaaaaah!" The knight screamed as he struggled comically.

"Release my soldier!" Alexia commanded, threatening the musician with her lance.

The man slowed the rhythm, making all the arms but the one that was holding the knight by his ankle disappear.

"You should stop it, Dias before you put us in a troublesome situation." A feminine voice said from behind.

"Don't worry, Raine, I wasn't going to hurt him." Dias said, smiling and holding the calm tempo with his violin. "But no one likes an unfinished move." And with those words Dias recovered the fast rhythm, finishing his little composition as the black hand sent the imperial knight flying into the sea.

"That guy needed a cold bath." He finished.

"This is no way to treat them. We are making too many diplomatic efforts for you to break them in a single moment."

"But Raine, did you see all the commotion? I was only doing my job."

The half-elf rolled her eyes.

"I apologize for any trouble that he may have caused. Governess Dorr is waiting for you, Alexia."

Alexia frowned, but followed the half-elf and Dias to the town hall.

"So you are Raine." Alexia said casually. "I have heard a lot of good things about you and the help you have offered to the half-elves."

"I guess that you mean attempts to help-elves. In two years I haven't reached any of my goals."

"I doubt that is true, things have changed in these last two years."

"Things haven't changed at all. The tolerance is just a facade to look better in this new society. Deep down people haven't changed. You just need to look around to see that people still reject us for being different. I'm afraid that is something that I will never be able to change."

Alexia nodded as both women, followed by Dias, entered in the town hall where Clara Dorr was waiting for them.

Dias and Raine took a seat while Alexia presented her respects to the governess.

"Please take a seat." The governess said as she took her seat. "From what I have heard, you must be Alexia. I'm pleased to meet you. I have to give you my most sincere condolences for the death of the king. I hope that Dias hasn't caused any trouble to you."

"Thank you, Governess, and actually he did. He didn't follow any protocol, and attacked one of my men."

"In my defense, I will say that I attacked him in self-defense." Dias said.

The governess took a deep breath and gave a murderous look to Dias. "I see, I apologize for his behavior. But we have to be cautious. Lately we have been having problems with some people that still think that Lloyd and Tethe'alla were the culprits of the Blood Purge in Palmacosta. They have begun to praise the Vanguard. And to make it worst some people have begun riots to pressure us to free Brute. But we can't and we won't do that." She assured Alexia

"That makes no sense. We sent copies of all the reports to Sylvarant." Alexia said, surprised.

"We know, but there are people who think that all those reports are false. At the beginning, we could ignore them but then they began to attract more people, and they are becoming a real menace. That's why I asked help from Raine and why I decided to hire Dias to keep those vandals in their place. But anyway, how can we help you?"

"We think that Alice and Decus, two dangerous members of the Vanguard, will come to Sylvarant. Our mission is to take them and kill them."

"I see. As if things weren't already bad enough…"

Governess Dorr stood up and looked at the sea through the window, letting the seconds pass slowly as she thought about what Alexia had told her. "As things are right now, if we killed them we would only make them become two martyrs that could be used to encourage more people to join those riots. But we cannot let them walk freely from our lands. Not after what they did."

Alexia noticed the deep hatred in her last quote.

The governess took her seat and supported her elbows over the table and crisscrossed the fingers of both hands. "We can't support you with troops as things are right now, but we can allow you to walk freely through our lands and ensure you shelter and groceries during your stay."

"Thank you, Governess Dorr, that's all we need."

* * *

**Palmacosta's central square.**

"And that's our house!" Marta told Emil, pointing at what would be their new home.

"It looks nice."

Emil smiled happily. He was going to live with Marta, which already was better than going back with his old family. And for the first time in months, it looked like he will be able to take a break. He didn't mind to go here and there to do some stuff, but being sincere with himself, he knew that he didn't have the biggest adventurer's spirit, something that he didn't share with Marta. Sometimes he wondered what a living spirit like Marta found in a shy and boring town guy like him.

"I can't wait to live together." Marta said, walking towards the house.

Emil froze when he heard Marta say the key world: _"together". _In that moment, thousands of thoughts about what living together was supposed to mean plagued his mind, making him unable to move. What was he going to do? What kind of relationship did they have? What kind of relationship Marta think they have? Did that make them more than close friends? What did living together mean? What did she expect from him? He hadn't been more scared in all his life.

"Emil, aren't you coming in?" Marta asked casually. When she looked at his face she instantly knew that something was wrong with him. He was trembling in place with his mouth open. No one needed to be a genius to notice that something was wrong.

"Emil?" She asked coming towards him. "Emil?" She asked a second time waving her hand before him, but he didn't respond to any kind of external stimulus.

Suddenly the sound of hundreds of screams accompanied noise of wood being cracked woke Emil up from his trance.

"What-What's going on!"

"It came from the port!" Marta said, already running to the center of the catastrophe.

"Wait Marta!" Emil said, running after her. "I don't think that we should go there."

A big crowd of people impeded Emil as he tried to reach his dear friend who was lost into the crowd.

"Marta!" He shouted, trying to open a path between the mass of people. "Marta, can you hear me!"

When he finally crossed the crowd he finally discovered what everyone was looking at. A boat had crashed against the port, breaking the wooden dock and finally running aground against the stones, completely shattering the bow.

"What happened?" Emil asked no one else in particular.

"We don't know. The boat just came at full speed and crashed against the dock and a few seconds after that two people left the boat running." The man standing next to him answered.

Then he saw Marta running towards the boat.

"Marta! Where are you going?" Emil asked, running after her again.

"There could be wounded people in there!" Marta said, without looking back.

Emil ran after her to help her and to ensure that she didn't injure herself in her little quest of aiding people. When he finally reached Marta, they both entered the crashed boat. The wooden floor squeaked at each step they took, threatening to break in at any moment.

"Be careful, Marta." Emil whispered.

"Don't worry, I will be." Marta said walking slowly and carefully. "But why are you whispering?"

"I-hmm…" he murmured, feeling a little stupid. "I don't know."

"Aaaaaaaah!" Someone screamed from inside a cabin.

Marta and Emil didn't waste any time and, forgetting any self-security measures, ran in the cabin, forcefully pushing past the stuck door. When they entered in the cabin they didn't know if they should feel sorry or laugh. A man only dressed in his underwear was tied to a fallen chair with a piece of wood nailed in his leg.

"Aaaaaaaaah! Damned idiots!" He shouted in pain. "My boat is broken! That fucking bitch!"

Marta and Emil didn't know about who he was talking about, but they hurried to aid the wounded man.

"This will hurt a little." And without any more warning, Emil took out the wooden piece that nailed the man's leg to the chair. That action was, of course, followed by a scream and some sweet words about Emil's mother's job.

"Watch that dirty mouth!" Marta said angrily.

"Oh, shut up! I had a wooden piece stuck into my leg. I will say whatever I want!"

Marta snorted, but began to heal his leg anyway.

"What happened?" Emil asked.

Alexia entered the cabin, followed by a smiling guy with black hair.

"My, my, what a mess." Dias said looking around.

"If you don't mind, I will be the one asking that!" Alexia shouted, pushing Emil aside carelessly and ignoring his protest. "What happened?"

"Decus and Alice did it."

"What!" Marta and Emil exclaimed in unison.

"They forced me and threatened to kill me and my family if I didn't do what they wanted me to do, and once we were reaching Palmacosta they stripped me and tied me to this chair."

"So they are here!" Alexia said, closing her fist and standing up.

She and Dias left the boat and went to the port where the Templars and the Imperial knights were waiting for her.

"There is a wounded man in the boat, but Marta is already taking care of him." Alexia said to Raine.

"I will go to check it anyway." Raine said entering the shattered boat.

Alexia nodded and looked to her soldiers.

"I have new information! Decus and Alice are here right now! They can't be too far way! Go in pairs and find them!"

"Yes Ma'am!" All said before leaving the port.

"And why are you following me!" Alexia asked Dias, annoyed.

"I'm not following you. We just have taken the same steps." He said, smiling calmly.

Alexia grumbled at his answer and left the place to find Decus and Alice herself.

* * *

**Outside Palmacosta.**

"You idiot buffoon!" Alice shouted, pointing at Decus. "What don't you understand of not calling attention!"

"I'm sorry Alice but I don't know how to stop a boat."

While they were discussing they didn't notice that two pairs of eyes were watching them at that exact moment from some shrubs some feet behind them.

"We found them." An imperial knight whispered to his partner.

But his partner seemed distracted, looking around as if he was looking for something else.

"What should we do?" The knight asked his distracted partner.

"I think that we should take them down." The partner said, now paying attention to the first knight.

"Are you sure? Alexia said they are too dangerous. Maybe we should go back and ask for reinforcements!"

"Darngerous? Are you kidding? With the mana inhibitor the half-elf can't use her magic against us. What is she going to do? Whip us with her toy rapier?"

"Yeah, but what about Decus?" The knight asked.

"I don't see him carrying any weapon if we do it fast we should be able to take them down before they know what has happened."

The knight didn't seem sure about his partner's plot but finally nodded.

"OK, let's do it. Cover me."

The knight came out running from the shrubs aiming his lance at Alice. When Decus saw it he quickly put himself in front of Alice, using his iron charm as a shield. But before the knight was even able to come close to the pair, the crimson blade of a sword tainted in blood erupted from the chest of the knight. When the Imperial Knight turned his head he saw his partner holding the grip of the sword that was taking his life.

"What-?" The knight said, spitting blood, unable to understand what was going on as he died.

Alice stepped to the side of Decus to see what was happening and smiled at the twisted scene. Decus opened his Iron-Maiden and took out his sword. Even if that knight has killed the other one, he didn't know if he could trust him.

"How disgusting." The knight said, taking out the sword from the corpse and throwing it away, as if it carried some kind of virus. "I'm going to stain myself with his blood."

Decus had heard that voice somewhere else but he didn't know from who was.

"Who are you!" Alice demanded.

"This armor sure is heavy." The knight said taking off all the armor but the helmet ignoring Alice's demands.

"I have asked who are you!" Alice said pointing to him with her toy rapier.

"Oh, yeah, we haven't been introduced. Allow me to present myself." The knight said taking out his helmet revealing a familiar pink-haired half-elf. "I am the great scientist: Nickolay Mladalov!"

* * *

**If you liked it advise your friends and if you didn't advise your enemies.**

**As always reviews will be welcomed.**** I like to know what the t readers think about my work.**


	7. The journey

**Thank**** you again to all who review my fic, you make me be willing to keep writing.**

**Replies to the anonymous reviewers:**

_**-**__**DuchessMeMaAeKo:**_** In most of the fics with Decus and Alice they have no importance at all and almost no screen time. The author only use them when he/she needs them to interact with the main characters, and that always end in a bad development of Decus and Alice. That's why I decided not to lose the elements of the main characters even if it is a Decus&Alice fic, because we all want to see a good development of the characters we like. **

_**-Syllys:**_** All the characters deserve their time. The main point of the last chapter was to introduce the reader in Sylvarant and the current conflict. And don't worry, your favorite characters are back in this chapter.**

_**-Sturm and Drang:**_** Thank you for the supporting words.**

**(...) (...) (...)**

**************EPISODE 1: A NEW BEGINNING.**

**Chapter 7: The journey**

**Outside Palmacosta**

Alice carefully examined the pink haired guy that stood before them, meticulously cleaning his clothes. She could feel it, he was fellow half-elf, and not just any half-elf, but the one they were looking for. She was finally having some luck.

"Nickolay!" Decus shouted, lowering his weapon. "So you managed to leave Tethe'alla! How?"

"Really? Do you really need to ask how? Doesn't the Knight armor give you any hints?" Nickolay said as he cleaned his glasses with his shirt.

"Oh… I understand it now. You dressed up as an imperial knight to avoid suspicion and be able to leave the country without problems!"

"Wow, you are a clever guy." He said sarcastically.

"Hehehe! Thank you." Decus said, laughing proudly. "Not a lot of people notice my deducing skills."

Alice rolled her eyes, not really knowing what to think about Decus' credulity. She finally walked closer to the half-elf, took off her robe and gave it to Decus to show who she was and properly present herself. And like a true lady she took the red tips of her yellow dress with her fingers and lifted them as she bowed her head while she crossed her legs in a curtsey.

"Hi, I'm Alice. I'm glad that you took care of that guard before he gave the alarm."

"Oh, that… I actually didn't do it for you. I saw a good chance to get rid of him and be free and I took it. Besides, since they already know you are around here all the blame of this murder will go to the both of you. It was a chance that I couldn't waste."

Alice smiled, to the surprise of the half-elf.

"I like your raw sincerity, it's not something that you can easily find."

"And I like to be flattered." Nickolay said accommodating his clothes. "But now, if you don't mind, I have to leave."

Alice lifted her toy rapier and put it over his chest as he tried to walk past her, using it as a barrier.

"Not so fast. What's the hurry?" She asked with a fake worried expression. "I actually want something from you."

"I would love to spend more time with you, but I have no time for this kid's game." Nickolay said, pushing the toy rapier away ignoring her.

Alice looked in disbelief at the man's behavior. That arrogant behavior wasn't going to be overlooked by Decus. He wasn't going to allow anyone to pass Alice as if she were nobody. He knew how much his dear friend needed to get rid of the mana-inhibitor and couldn't allow himself to stand by without doing anything about it. He knew that Alice didn't like anyone else to fight her fights, unless she forced them to do it, but he wasn't going to let that discourage him.

"How you dare to ignore my dear Alice." He said stopping Nickolay. "Don't you know who is she?"

But in Alice's mind, Decus' action wasn't interpreted as a favor, but as an attempt to make her look like she couldn't defend herself. And there was only one way to prove that she wasn't weak; a soundly slap.

'_SMAK'_

"I have already told you, Dumbo-Decus!" She said as Decus caressed his burning cheek. "I'm not weak! I can handle it all by myself. Just because I have this thing," She pointed the mana-inhibitor. "doesn't mean that I'm weak! Do you understand it?"

"What an interesting girl." Nickolay muttered, smiling to himself. "This might not be a waste of time after all."

"I'm sorry Alice. I didn't think that-"

"That's your problem, you never think. You just do the first thing that comes to your mind without looking at the consequences. The last time you almost-" but she cut herself before she said the key word: die.

"I was only trying to be useful."

"Then stay aside when-!"

"I hate to interrupt your conversation." Nickolay said lifting his voice to ensure himself to be heard. "But I could help you to get rid of the mana-inhibitor."

Those words took Alice's attention completely.

"So what Decus said was right?" She asked with more desperation than she would have like to show. "Then do it! Take this thing off of me."

"If I could, I would have gotten rid of mine, don't you think?" Nickolay said, pointing at his own mana-inhibitor. "I can't do it here. I need my lab instruments to disable it."

"Let's go then. Why are we wasting our time here? Where is the laboratory?"

"In Triet."

"What! That's at least at four days from Palmacosta."

"Indeed. As you might have noticed, I'm not the strongest man alive." He said, opening his arms and spinning himself around. "That's why I need someone to protect me in my travel to Triet. And from what I have heard, you two could fit that profile. So if you protect me, I will disable your mana-inhibitor. Do we have a deal?"

Alice smiled, satisfied.

"We do have a deal."

"Great! Then we should leave as soon as possible. It's a matter of time before the companions of our friend," he pointed the corpse of the knight, "come here to check how he feels. And as a doctor, I can tell you that he is not very well."

"You are right, there is no point in staying here any longer. Let's go, Decus."

* * *

**Sylvarant **

Zelos and Sheena looked at each other with an unfriendly gaze while they walked in circles, testing each other's strength with their eyes.

"So it has come to this…" Sheena said closing her fist.

"You don't leave me any other option." Zelos answered, with an unusually serious gaze.

"I could say the same."

"This could have ended different Sheena…" Zelos said, disappointed.

"The time for chit chats is over. Let's finish this once and for all!"

"Aaaaaaah!" Both shouted in unison.

"Rock, paper, scissors!"

"Rock, paper, scissors!"

"Rock, paper, scissors!"

"Rock, paper, scissors!"

"Rock, paper, scissors!"

Zelos knelt, defeated before his opponent, who was celebrating her victory jumping in joy.

"Ahahahah! I'm the most skilled in this game! You had no chance!"

"No way!" Zelos refuted from the ground. "It was unfair! I demand a rematch!"

"That sound like a loser excuse to me." Sheena said crossing her arms and looking him over her shoulder with a gaze that overflowed with self-confidence. "Why should I give you a rematch?"

"Your breast were distracting me! It was impossible to concentrate with those-!"

'_SLAP'_

"You pervert! I'll smack you!"

"Why do you always warn me after the slap!" Zelos complained, rubbing his red check.

"Because you deserve it!" Sheena answered, turning her back to him to hide her blushing cheeks.

"So… Where are we going to go?" Zelos asked as if nothing had happened.

"I think that Luin would be a nice place to begin our search."

"You won, you choose, but I still think that Altamira would have been a better place to begin our search."

"Of course! What better place for two fugitives to go than the biggest tourist complex in the world?" She said sarcastically.

Zelos and Sheena started their Rheairds and began to go to their new destination. The traveling was quite calm until Sheena noticed a big cloud of smoke in the distance, not too far out of their way.

"Zelos!" Sheena shouted but Zelos didn't hear her because of the strong wind. "ZELOS!" She shouted, louder this time to ensure that Zelos could hear her. "Have you seen that!" She said pointing the smoke.

"Yeah!" He shouted, nodding. "We should land and see what's going on!"

As they went closer to the smoke they saw what was causing it. A house of salvation was in flames. The fire was already so intense that it would be reduced into ashes in a few minutes. When they landed they saw a group of priests begging knelt to five guys who were looking the fire.

"Please, stop the fire!" An old priest begged, grabbing the leg of a man.

The guy kicked the priest away. "Get away from me scum!" he shouted. The two younger priests went to check if their elder was badly wounded.

"Why are you doing this?" One of the priests asked. "We only try to help people!"

One of the men took the younger priest by the collar and lifted him up.

"How dare you demand any answer!" The bandit said, raising his fist in a menacing way, ready to punch him. "Do you think you have any right to ask after what you have done?"

"Hey! What do you think are you doing?" Sheena shouted, climbing down from her Rheaird.

"You should better go far away from here if you don't want any problems, woman!" The guy that was holding the priest said.

"That's not a way to treat a lady." Zelos said joining her side. "Not even if it is her." Sheena poked Zelos in the shoulder.

The guy suddenly dropped the priest and pointed at Zelos.

"You are Tethe'alla's chosen, aren't you?" he asked.

"I see that my fame precedes me." Zelos said in a mocking voice. "If you leave those innocents alone, then you won't force me to kick your grimy asses."

The five men raised their weapons and went towards Zelos.

"Beatrice will reward us if we kill you."

"I would like to see you trying it." Zelos said, unsheathing his sword.

Sheena went closer to Zelos and took a fighting position.

"It looks like we won't get out of this one without fighting." She whispered.

"Are you sure? I think that if you show a bit more of that beautiful cleavage of yours they might change of idea." Zelos answered, only half-teasing

"What! There is no way that I will do that! You pervert." Sheena said as she blushed, trying to cover her cleavage.

"Me, a perv?" Zelos said putting a hand over his chest, sounding offended. "I'm not your tailor."

"Stop talking! Take us seriously!" One of the bandits shouted, running toward them, followed closely by his four companions.

"Oh, my, here they come…"

The bandit lifted his sword and launched a blow at Zelos, who effortlessly parried it with his sword and immediately slammed his shield roughly against his face, breaking his nose. The man covered his face with his hands in both pain and a vain attempt to stem the waterfall of blood gushing from his nose. Zelos didn't give his enemy any time to recover, and before the man could utter a sound he slammed his shield against his head again, knocking out the bandit out. The bandit fell to the floor, unconscious, before his surprised companions.

"You will pay for that!" One of them yelled.

The four men ran towards the pair.

Noticing that Sheena was unarmed, one of them ran toward her, ready to get rid of the supposedly easy prey, but to his surprise instead of running away, Sheena ran towards him. The bandit tried to hit the ninja, but it was already too late. With one hand, she grabbed his arm before he could land the blow and lifted it. She delivered a strong punch to his armpit, producing an intense pain that forced the man to clutch his injured body, dropping his sword in the process. Then Sheena spun around and elvowed him in the chest, sending him flying backwards.

"I… I will kill you, bitch!" The man said, coughing as he tried to recover his breathe.

Sheena's answer to his threats was fast and rough. Like lightning, she spun around and delivered a powerful roundhouse kick right to his face, his jaw giving a sickening crack as it was dislocated. The man began to wobble from side to side as he tried to recover his balance, only to be taken by the arm and pulled to the ground. Once her opponent was on the ground, Sheena put her knee over his back to immobilize him and roughly twisted his arm, dislocating his elbow.

"Ahhhhhh!" the man screamed in pain.

While Sheena was busy with the bandit, one of his mates tried to stab her in the back, but the sneaky attack was quickly deflected by Zelos', who had already gotten rid of other bandit. Sheena, noticing the failed attack, hit his chest with the palm of her hand and Zelos gave the man a vicious kick, knocking him back. The bandit got up and prepared to attack again when he noticed a little card of paper shining on his chest.

"Bye-Bye." Zelos said smiling to the bandit.

"What the-?" But before he could end his question, a little explosion sent him flying backwards. The bandit landed heavily with a thud and made no attempt to get back up.

Sheena and Zelos then looked to the last bandit.

The guy looked at his mates, either unconscious or moaning in pain, as the pair approached him. The guy dropped his weapons and fled as fast as his legs would carry him, leaving his allies behind.

"Watch this." Zelos said, smiling.

He took his shield off and threw it as if it was a disk in the direction of the bandit, hitting him in the head and sending him to the ground.

"Did you see that! Five stars!" Zelos exclaimed in celebration.

"The Church…" The older priest said, crying. "Is all burned."

"It's OK, we are fine, that's what matters." One of the younger priest said, trying to comfort him.

Sheena ran toward the priests to aid them.

"Is anyone wounded?" Sheena asked to the three priests.

"We are fine." One of the priests said. "How can we thank you?"

"There is nothing to thank us for." Sheena said, helping the younger priests raise the older priest to his feet. "That's what we are here for."

Zelos quickly collected his shield and went back to Sheena and the priests.

"What happened? What did they wanted?" Sheena asked to the priests.

"I- I don't know. They broke into the church, dragged us out, and burned it."

"They didn't want anything from you?" Zelos asked.

"No, they just dragged us out of the church, said something about ending the abuses of the Church of Martel, and burned it down."

"Maybe they were from Tethe'alla." Zelos said to Sheena.

"I don't know, maybe. But I have heard that there have been a lot of incidents lately in Sylvarant against the Church of Martel since the Blood Purge incident." Sheena said. "Whoever it was, it doesn't matter now, we have to take care of them now. It looks like we will have to stop our mission for a while."

"Not necessarily." He answered.

"What are you talking about? We can't leave them here."

"There is no problem." of the priests interrupted as he coughed. "We are fine."

"We are not going to leave you here." Zelos said, giving a gel to the priest. "We are going to Luin. We can take them with us and leave them at the town's inn. They will take care of them there."

"I guess that could work."

"Thank you, Chosen." The old priest said.

"No problem. Let's go, Sheena."

Sheena nodded.

"Yeah, Let's go."

* * *

**Asgard**

"The last sunbeams of the twilight faded in the night as the three heroes - Alice, Decus and Nickolay - arrived at Asgard, the City of Wind. Decus turned his head to his left and saw Alice giving him a bored gaze. Her beautiful honey eyes looked at his deep sea ones, and for a moment, the world stop moving. Could it be? Could this be the moment that Decus had waited for since he was nineteen?"

"No Dumbo-Decus, it isn't." Alice answered emotionlessly. "And stop narrating what we do. I've had enough of your stupidity for today."

"Please Alice, stop looking at me with that cold look. You are freezing my heart" Decus said, a hand over his chest and the other over his fore head as he looked to the sky forlornly.

"I hate to interrupt." Nickolay interrupted. "But we should leave this place as soon as possible. This might not be the most crowded place, but we can't take any risks. Let's take the groceries we need and leave this place."

"We have just arrived and you already want to leave?" Alice asked. "Now that I think about it, we don't know why you ended up being imprisoned."

"I would prefer not to talk about it in a public place. Let's just say that I was the greatest expert in the field of science involving mutated cell replication caused by expheres."

"And that's something bad?" Decus asked.

"Apparently when you use humans as guinea pigs, it is."

Alice lifted an eyebrow, she wasn't sure if she had understood what he had said, but she decided to leave it as that for now. She didn't care a lot about it anyway. As long as he could get rid of her mana-inhibitor, it was fine for her.

The three entered in the town and went directly to the closest shop, none of them wanted to spend more time than necessary in a town. As weird as it was, no one seemed to notice them or to freak out about their presence in the town. It was possible that the latest news about them hadn't arrived to Asgard yet. Besides, as Vanguard members, they didn't have a bad reputation in Sylvarant, not until the truth of the Blood Purge was known. They had to take advantage of it while they could

"Could it be?" An old woman said, not too far away from them. "Alice? Alice of the Vanguard? Is that you?"

"Do I know you?" Alice asked with a remarkable contempt in her voice.

The old woman knelt and bowed.

"Thank to the goddess Martel. It's you! Lady Alice! Thank you! Thank you very much!"

"Do you know that woman?" Nickolay asked.

"She looks familiar, but I don't recognize her."

The old woman stood up so Alice could see her better.

"Don't you recognize me? You helped me with that priest in Meltokio. If it wasn't for you my grandson would be dead now."

It was then when Alice recognized her. She was the woman she helped by beating that hypocritical priest and helping her grandson to get a medical review in Flanoir.

"Oh… Now I remember you."

"Can I do something for you to thank you for what you did?"

"Just don't tell anyone that we have been here. Let's go to the shop Decus." She said, ignoring the woman.

But the old woman wasn't satisfied with her answer. Her grandson was alive thanks to Lady Alice, and she had to return the favor in one way or another, and she wasn't going to take a 'no' as an answer.

"Wait!" The old woman said, following the trio. "I'm the owner of the Inn. Do you want food? A place to sleep? Money?"

But Alice kept ignoring her. Any of the propositions were appealing to her, except the money. But she wasn't going to take the alms of a granny. Decus was following her without questioning her decisions, as usual. And Nickolay seemed in favor of leaving the city as soon as possible.

"But there must be something I can do! A dinner? A hot shower?" the old woman persisted.

Alice suddenly stopped when she heard the key words: hot shower. She hadn't had a hot shower in days, and she was quite tired of taking cold baths in streams. Just to hear the words "_hot shower_" was making her feel tingly.

"Did you say hot shower? With hot water?" The old woman nodded at Alice's question. "Well, I guess we can take a little break."

The old woman smiled when Alice finally accepted one of her proposals.

"OK." Decus said, following Alice to the Inn. "And I will make the dinner!"

The old woman smiled and nodded to Decus.

"Let's go then." Nickolay said, annoyed.

The old woman heart stopped for a second when she heard Nickolay's voice. "D-do I know you?" The old woman asked with a trembling voice.

"I don't think so." He said, readjusting his glasses.

An inexplicable chill traveled through her back when she looked at him. She knew that guy from somewhere, and whatever had happened, it wasn't something good. But he was with Alice, so she told herself that she was probably over reacting, there was no way that someone as nice as Alice could be with someone evil. It must be her imagination.

* * *

**Asgard's Inn**

A little kid who was no more than ten years old entered in the kitchen when he smelled something tasty being cooked inside. When he entered in the kitchen, he saw an unknown, purple haired man busy with several cooking instruments.

"Are you the new cook?" The young boy asked Decus.

Decus turned his head to look at the young kid who had already taken a chair and put it aside him to watch what he was doing.

"No, I'm not. Who are you, little boy?"

The kid looked at the bubbling water with noodles and smelled it with so much force that he could almost taste it with his tongue.

"It smells great. Can I taste it?"

"It's not done yet." Decus said as he added some more ingredients to the broth.

"Who are you?" The kid asked with curiosity.

"Well, my name is Decus, if that's what you are asking for."

"Decus!" The kid almost fell from the chair when he heard his name, but Decus was more surprised when he heard his next quote. "You are the guy from the Blood Purge!"

Decus stop cutting when he heard the young kid. He couldn't believe what he had heard, if that kid knew him and what he did they were lost.

"Wh-What did you say?" Decus gulped.

"You are the guy that the evil Lloyd Irving and the Church blames for the Blood Purge!"

"Wait, wait. What are you saying?" The purple-aired asked.

"Oh, that's right, you don't know about it, do you?" Decus negated with his head. "They say that you killed all those innocent people in Palmacosta. But they are lying!" Decus could notice the hatred in those last words. "I was there, and I saw him with my own eyes. They say that it was you, but that's a lie. You didn't do it, Lloyd did it!"

Decus lowered his head and looked away.

"What do you mean when you say that you saw him?" He asked, trying to hide his face expression with his fringe.

"I was with my dad and my mom when Lloyd ordered that the city was to be burned." The kid said with a sad and melancholic voice. "A knight entered our house and attacked my mom, but my dad defended us. And then, when we were going to leave our house Lloyd appeared and stabbed my dad, and then he killed my mom." Decus began to cut some vegetables. "And then he came after me but the burning wooden roof fell between us and he left. I tried to save my little sister, but the smoke had already killed her."

"I see…" Decus said emotionlessly voice as he put more ingredients in the boiling broth.

"How could he do that!" The kid shouted in tears. "We didn't do anything bad! How could he do something like that!"

"Maybe he had his reasons…"

"What kind of reason can justify what he did!"

Decus took a deep breath. "I don't know…"

"He is a monster!" The kid shouted with hate.

The old woman entered in the kitchen when she heard her grandson.

"Don't annoy our guests." She scolded the kid. "Go to the dining room and prepare the table for the dinner."

"Yes grandma…" The kid said lowering his head.

When the kid left the kitchen the old woman approached slowly to Decus.

"You will have to forgive him. He lost his parents in the Blood Purge."

"It's OK." Decus said, as if nothing had happened while he removed the broth from the stove. "I lost my parents when I was at his age too. The Desians took them to a human ranch."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't worry, it was long ago. I don't even think about it anymore." Decus took a spoon and tasted the food. "It's ready."

It was obvious to the old woman that Decus didn't want to talk at that moment, so she decided to leave him alone with his thoughts.

"I will help my grandson with the table."

"OK" he said, nodding in response.

Decus looked into the stew as if he tried to find an answer in the steaming broth.

"A monster, huh…"

* * *

"It was delicious." The young kid said when he finished the dinner.

"We should leave already." Nickolay said, getting up from the table.

Alice stood up too and put on her hat.

"Yeah, we can't waste any more time. Let's go Decus."

Decus stoop up without saying a further word, took his Iron-Maiden, and opened the door for Alice.

"Wait!" The old woman shouted. "Why are you leaving already? You can stay here to sleep."

"We are in a hurry." Alice said as she left the inn.

The old woman ran after Alice to reach her before she left the building.

"Lady Alice, wait a moment!" Alice turned her head to look at old woman who had become annoying. "Come with me a moment, I have something that can help you."

"Look, I have no time for this."

"Please."

Alice rolled her eyes. "Fine…"

The old woman leaded the group behind the inn to a stable.

"These are my horses." She said showing them the two animals. "I know it is not enough to thank you for what you have done for me and my grandson, but I would like to lend them to you. They will help you to go faster through Sylvarant. And you can take the wagon, too." She said, pointing an old wooden wagon.

Alice smiled.

"I think that I could accept the present."

"If we travel in a wagon carried by two horses, we could be there tomorrow night." Nickolay pointed out.

The group prepared the transport with the help of the granny and her grandson. Once everything was in its place, Nickolay took the place of the driver and Alice and Decus entered the wagon.

"Let's go!" Nickolay shouted, shaking the reins.

The old woman and the kid bid farewell to the group in silence as they left the city in the same way they entered: without being noticed.

Alice smiled happily. "Tomorrow night I will be free of the inhibitor." But to her disappointment, Decus didn't said anything to her. "I said that tomorrow I will be free of the inhibitor!" She said louder this time. He should be happy for her, but he didn't seem to notice what she was saying.

"Decus!" She shouted.

"Ha-uh, what?" He said, looking everywhere, confused.

"What's up with you?" Alice asked, pretty annoyed.

"Nothing…" Decus took a deep breath wondering if he should ask her or not. "Do you think… Do you think I'm a monster?"

"What?"

"Do you think I'm evil?"

"Why are you asking me this? Did you drink sea water?"

"I killed that kid's family in Palmacosta…" Alice chuckled at the irony of what had happened back in Asgard if that was true. "I killed all those innocent people. Do you think it makes me a monster?"

"There is no such thing as innocence when we talk about humans." Alice said with a serious voice. "You already know how despicable your race is."

Decus didn't like when she talked like that about his kind, but even if her words were cruel, he must recognize that she was right.

"Besides," Alice continued as she yawned. "It was Richter's plot wasn't it? If you hadn't done it, another would have done it."

"If that's true," Decus said, more to himself than to Alice. "then… Why I don't feel better about it?"

* * *

**I guess that you all suspect which was Nickolay's work (even if he put it a nice name to his scientist field) and for who he worked. To those who don't know the old woman, she was in Alice&Decus side-quest; you can watch it in youtube if you are interested. If you do you will see that Alice can also help people in her own twisted way.**

**Well, this is it for today, I hope you liked it. As always I will appreciate your reviews, your support is welcomed and your opinions can help me to improve. **


	8. Power lust

**First of all I have to apologize for the delay in the release of this chapter. It should have been released weeks ago but due some issues I couldn't. ****Anyway, here is it.**

**And secondly but not less important, thank you to the people who review, you make me believe that keep writing does worth it. **

**And without more delay (if you have read the boring author notes) here is the chapter:**

* * *

**EPISODE 1: A NEW BEGINNING.**

**Chapter 8: Power lust.**

* * *

**Meltokio****'s Royal Palace**

The moans of the princess could be heard through the red door guarded by two stoic imperial guards who only waited for orders. It was well known by everyone in the palace that Princess Hilda was in a deep depression after the tragic loss of her father at the hands of Alice, and even if she felt better most of the time now, she still had big relapses from time to time. Suddenly the door opened and the guards stepped aside to let the Pope pass. He had been having a spiritual talk with the princess for two long hours to tranquilize her.

"How is the princess?" One of the guards asked, worried.

"What the Princess and I talk about doesn't concern you!" The Pope shouted arrogantly. "What we talk about stays between the princess and me!"

The Pope then left the guards and, walking over the red carpet that covered the corridors of the palace using his golden crook as a cane with each step he took, he went to his room where a man dressed in dark blue royal clothes was waiting for him.

"We have received a message from Alexia." The man said giving to the pope the rolled message tied with a green ribbon.

"Let me see it."

The Pope took the paper and untied it carelessly, impatient to read its contents. . His eyes moved faster from left to right as he read the message. As he read one line after another the wrinkles in his face began to stress making obvious the rage that filled his heard with each word he read. When he finished reading its content he a made a ball with the paper and threw it to a near torch.

"_Who would have known that two rats would be such a nuisance. They shouldn't have been able to leave the city alive. If anyone discovers what I did…"_ The Pope thought. _"No, it doesn't matter, no one would believe her anyway. It's her word against mine. But I can't take any risks, not when I'm so close to finishing my plan."_

"Tell the council to join me in the court!" The pope commanded the royal messenger.

The messenger bowed and kissed the Pope's ring with the symbol of the church of Martel, "as you wish my Lord," and he left.

"Things are going to begin to change here."

* * *

**Desert of Triet.**

The nights in the Desert of Triet where know for being the coldest ones in all Sylvarant and now one person in particular was suffering the consequences of the drastic temperature changes, Decus. In a gentlemanly gesture, he had decided to lend Alice his jacket. At first she refused to use it, but once the dry and cold wind began to harass the wagon, she demanded that Decus give it to her, and of course he happily obeyed. But it didn't take a long time for the coldness to do its job on Decus and a few minutes after his gentlemanly gesture, Decus was embracing himself, shivering in the cold while his teeth chattered.

"Stop it, Decus," Alice said as she breathed over her hands and rubbed them. "that sound is beginning to be annoying."

"W-we could get close each other to warm u-us. W-what d-do you think A-Alice?" Decus said as he tried to smile.

"Warm us! Talk about yourself! I'm pretty fine., it's not my fault if you don't have enough tolerance for the cold!"

"We have arrived!" Nickolay shouted from the driver's place.

"Finally!" Alice exclaimed as she got up.

Decus and Alice came out from the wagon to see the laboratory. They expected some kind of little building with some instruments inside, but their mouths opened in surprise when they saw the enormous building that stood before them. They were before the Renegade's base of Triet. They both knew this building well, since Alice had put a lot of effort in trying to find an opening to get into the building in her search of expheres with Decus, but they never were able to get in.

"This is your laboratory?" Decus asked in surprise.

"One of them, the other was destroyed in an explosion and, as I'm sure you can imagine, it became unusable."

"Wait a moment…" Decus suddenly stopped shivering. "This is a Desian base isn't it?" He asked in an unusually aggressive voice.

Alice looked at Decus in surprise. She knew that his parents were sent to a human ranch when he was only a kid, and she didn't know how he would react if Nickolay was a Desian. To tell the truth she never liked the Desians that much since it was because of them why her parents were forced to do the pilgrimage and why she was abused as a child. But in that moment, Desian or not, what she wanted was to get rid of the mana-inhibitor, and as much as she hated to rely in others Nickolay was her only option.

"Oh… I guess that it was never said. Well, it was supposed to be a secret after all." Nickolay said calmly. "This is a Renegade's base."

"Renegades?" Both of them asked.

"That's what I said, Renegades. Basically, they were an organization of half-elves that disguised themselves as Desians to accomplish their objectives."

"So, you were a renegade." Decus concluded aloud with a calmer voice.

"Actually, I was a Desian." Nickolay said, unconscious of the danger in his quote.

Decus grabbed the pink-haired half-elf by the collar and pushed him against the wall.

"You were a Desian?" He shouted.

"What the hell do you think you are doing!" Nickolay asked.

"Decus, release him!" Alice ordered. "Now!"

But Decus didn't obey her.

* * *

_In the middle of the forest__, a group of desians where escorting a group of humans to Asgard's human ranch. All the humans were being transported like beasts with manacles on their hands and ankles, the only exception to that was a little purple-haired kid whose wrists and ankles were too thin. The kid had been crying the whole time and the Desians weren't known for being patient with the humans and their "breedings" as they call them. And one of the Desians finally kicked the kid._

"_Shut up before I kill you, scum!" The desian shouted, unsheathing his sword. _

"_Leave my child__ alone!" Decus' mother shouted in tears as she knelt to protectively embrace her son._

_A __Desian grabbed Decus' mother and threw her to the dirt. Decus' father shouted in anger before throwing himself into the soldier, driving them both to the ground. The human quickly knelt over the half-elf and began to beat him with both fists. Two Desian went to aid his comrade and pull the man on top of him off. The first Desian who arrived kicked the human head making him lose the sense of balance and deadweight fall over the ground. A third Desian went to aid the wounds of his comrade. Mean while the other two Desians lifted Decus' father off the ground and forced him to kneel. _

"_Decus! Run!" His father shouted._

_But Decus was frozen by fear._

"_RUN! RUN!" _

_Decus then closed his eyes as tears began to fall from them. He turned and began to run away._

"_He__'s escaping!" A Desian shouted._

"_Don't worry, he won't last long out there."_

_Decus ran away as fast as possible, he heard a Desian shout some stuff about the respect that vermin must have to the superior race of the half-elves followed by his mother's cry of anguish. _

_But Decus didn't turn back. He ran, the tears falling down his face barely letting him see the path and the branches of shrubs hit his face giving him some small cuts on his arms and face, but he kept running. He tripped over a stone and fell to the floor wounding his kneels, but he stood up and kept running; his feet began to bleed, but he kept running; he kept running until exhausted and out of breath he felt to the dirt. The next thing he remembered after that was waking up in Hima's orphanage._

* * *

"Can't you see?" Decus growled to Alice. "He is a Desian! Desians killed my parents. Don't you remember Alice? It was because of Desians like him that you suffered abuse in the orphanage!"

"I don't care!" Alice shouted. "I need him! Release him, now!"

"And you are blaming me for that!" Nickolay shouted.

Decus lifted his first in rage ready to hit the half-elf. His breath began to speed up as he clenched the fist with more and more force. Nickolay looked Decus with a cold, defiant glaze. Unable to hold on Decus launched the fist to the surprised Nickolay who closed his eyes, but instead of hitting the half-elf Decus punched the wall a few inches next to Nickolay's head. The pinky-haired half-elf gulped in disbelief as he looked the fist aside him. After a few seconds, Decus finally released Nickolay.

"My… What a drama queen." The scientist said trying to sound calm as he readjusted his clothes.

"Explain yourself." Alice demanded, shifting her focus to Nickolay.

"What? You too?"

"Look, I might not like humans, but neither do I appreciate the Desians." She clarified. "If you were a Desian, and this is a Renegade's base, from what you have explained, this makes no sense. I want you to explain yourself."

"What if I don't?" He asked, smiling arrogantly.

"Do you really want to know? I prefer it to be a surprise." She asked in a childish voice, as if nothing had happened a moment ago.

"Is that supposed to be a threat?" Nickolay asked. "Do you take me for an idiot? You still need me to get rid of the mana-inhibitor." Alice's sweet face seemed to twist for a fraction of second when she heard his words. "But I guess that it won't hurt me to explain it to you."

Nickolay readjusted his glasses before continuing.

"I, as most of the half-elves in Sylvarant, was a desian. I was an expert in the field of exbeulization, the result of the mutation suffered because of expheres. After the great war most of the Cruxis Cristal, also known as high experes, were lost. In order to solve that me and other scientists worked with Kvar to create the a high exphere, an exphere whose power would be comparable or superior to a Cruxis Cristal!" Nickolay smiled and closed his fist. "We called it: Angelus project." He shouted disturbingly. "It took us years of hard work and thousands of failed specimens were lost in the process, but we finally made it. We managed to develop a high exphere in a human body." He said full of pride. "But Kvar wanted to all the glory for himself and tried get rid of all the scientists. That bastard!" He snarled showing his teeth, "but I was able to escape. After that it was obvious that I couldn't go back to the Desians and as you should know, there was no place in Sylvarant for a half-elf, so I made the obvious decision, and my only choice. I went with the renegades. Thanks to my knowledge about the Desians' projects and my superior intelligence they allowed me to work for them." Nickolay cleared his voice. "Basically that's all. Sadly, the Angelus Preject was lost and all the documents of the research were destroyed in the explosion of the human ranch. Years of hard work wasted" he put his hand over his forehead as he sighed. "I hope I have clarified any doubt that your minds could have."

Alice nodded, but Decus crossed his arms and blew. He didn't seem happy with his explanation ,but he also knew that he couldn't blame it all to him, especially since Alice needed him.

Nickolay turned to the control panel before the door and, after pressing some keys, the door opened and the trio entered into the Renegade's Base. The base itself looked a lot like the human ranch they had been in. Or at least, what the human ranches used to look like, since all of them had been destroyed. All the passages looked the same making it frustrating labyrinthine. To make it worst the only lit was a soft red light that barely was enough to let them see where they were walking.

"Are you sure that this place works?" Alice asked.

"Of course. The main door has opened and the place looks to be in perfect shape. Right now, it is only working with the reserve energy of the security system. We just need to go to the main energy room and reactivate the energy system. Once we reactivate that, this place will recover its full potential again."

The three finally entered in an enormous round room. In the middle of the room there was an enormous cylindrical column fully covered by expheres. The column span the height of the room, vanishing into two cavities at the base and the top. A passage with the shape of a ring allowed them to walk around the device and a railing impeded anyone from falling into the machinery that was under them. Nicolay went closer to a computer that was located in a little outcropping of the circular passage and turned it on. The screen blinked to life with a green light and a simple windowthat only asked for a password appeared on-screen.

"Let's do this." Nickolay said, as he introduced the password.

Suddenly, the cylindrical column began to rotate slowly, but its speed increased more and more with each turn. The machinery began to make sounds and the lights began to blink until they finally lightened everything with a bright white light.

"Here is it!" Nickolay shouted proudly, pointing at the column covered with expheres. "The pride of half-elf energy engineering. A motor fed by nothing less than two hundred fifty expheres, a near limitless energy source."

"Wonderful." Alice said sarcastically. "Now can I get rid of this thing?" She asked pointing at the mana-inhibitor around her neck.

"So much impatience…" Nickolay said in a bored voice. "But I guess you are right. Even if I don't use my magic, this thing is quite uncomfortable."

The scientist lead Decus and Alice to a room full of mechanical devices and quickly began to take different tools.

"OK, let's do this." Nickolay said after a moment. He grabbed a chair. "Sit down, it will only take a few seconds."

Alice sat in the chair and Nickolay began to work with various tools under the careful watch of Decus until he finally opened the mana-inhibitor, freeing Alice of the collar and letting it fall to the floor. Then Nickolay began to work on his own inhibitor.

Alice stood up and touched her neck. She smiled unable to hide her happiness. A chill crossed all her body and she shuddered in pleasure.

"Do you feel alright?" Decus asked worried.

"Fine! I'm more than fine." Alice said taking her rapier. "I don't think I will be able to hold myself any longer. I will give you five seconds Decus: Five,"

Decus ran away as fast as possible., He knew what Alice was about to do and he didn't want to be too close to her.

"Four,"

"Finally free." Nickolay said, moving his neck now free of the mana inhibitor, when he saw Decus throwing a table to the floor and hiding himself behind it.

"Three,"

"What are you doing?" He asked coming closer to Decus.

"Damn! I can't wait any longer!" Alice shouted. "Two, one, zero!" She said in a fraction of seconds.

"What the-?" Nickolay started turning his head towards Alice to see a sparkling runic circle under her feet. "Oh Shit!"

"A SEASON IN HELL!" Alice shouted.

Nickolay jumped behind the table where Decus was hiding while Alice began to cast the same spell over and over again, madly launching rays from the tip of her rapier everywhere around, her destroying everything as she laughed maniacally.

"I love it when she is happy." Decus said smiling and closing his eyes. "Isn't it the most wonderful and pure laugh you have ever heard?"

Nickolay looked at Decus with his eyes open wide and his incredulous gaze showing that he was not really sure who was more insane: The crazy girl casting spells everywhere and destroying everything or the mad guy at his side that thought that her insane laugh was lovely.

After thirty seconds that seemed like hours Alice stopped casting spells and sat down in the chair.

"That felt great." She said, recovering her breath.

Nickolay was the first to stand up. "What a mess." He said looking around himself as he saw some melted devices and various objects falling around and crashing against the floor. "That spell you used it looked like a spell of level two."

"It was."

"Fantastic." Nickolay said, smiling. "You were able to cast a level two spell in no time without an iincantation."

"Wait, what!" Decus asked, not understanding a word.

"Allow me to explain it to your inferior mind in a way that you can understand ." Nickolay said, taking a marker. "There are four levels of spells: level one, level two, level three and Mystic Artes." He went to a half burned plastic board and using a marker draw a stick figure with four circles around him each one with a number from one to four inside. "Usually a caster needs to use an incantation to modify the mana and be able to cast a spell. But as casters improve, they can use their spells without using incarnations and they only need to use a cast command, like _'fire ball',_ to use the spell." Decus nodded. "Fine. The level of the casters can be measured by the level of the spells they can use without incantations and how fast can they do it. The higher level spells they can cast without incantation, the more powerful the casters are." He explained making more drawings in the board. "Some casters can even cast spells without the cast command or cast the spell without any warning, making them extremely dangerous, though they can only do it with low level spells."

Alice put a hand over her mouth and yawned. "Booooring…" She said with a childish voice. "I already knew how powerful I was. When does the interesting part begin?"

Nickolay frowned, annoyed because of the disrespectful behavior of the young half-elf.

"Well, the _"interesting part",_" he said bending, his fingers, making the air-quote symbol to emphasize his words, "is that you did it without an exphere. Do you know what you could do with one?"

* * *

Alice had left the laboratory, followed closely, but from a prudent distance, by Decus who was looking at her thoughtfully. Finally she entered a room but instead of sitting or lying on the bed, she began to walk in circles with her hand on her back. The first thing that called Decus's attention was a picture of a blue haired guy with the Goddess Martel, but Decus was more concerned about Alice's current situation than about the blue haired guy who seemed to have some kind fetish for the goddess.

"Do you feel fine, Alice? What worries your cute head?" he asked.

"Shut it up Decus!"

"You are thinking about what Nickolay said, about the exphere?" He took the absence of answer as a _yes_. "You don't need an exphere Alice. You have me!"

"As if that could help!" She complained. "You saw them didn't you? Marta was a useless pussy and Emil… Don't even make me talk about that kid! He didn't even know how to use a sword six months ago. And they nearly killed us! How!" Alice exclaimed maybe with more worry than she would have liked to show. "I need more power! MUCH MORE POWER! I don't want to die for being weak like my parents. I refuse to stop existing!"

Decus went closer to Alice to try to comfort her a little. He knew how bad she felt anytime she talked about her parents and she seemed especially stressed.

"What did I tell you about personal space!" She shouted taking a step backwards and making an imaginary line with the top rapier. "Don't cross the line."

Decus stopped walking and looked to the floor.

"But Alice… You have me. I would never let anything bad happen to you." Then he looked at her with a serious gaze. "They would have to kill me before touching a single hair of your head."

"You don't understand it, do you?" She asked in a sad voice. "We almost died in the Ginnungagap, and I couldn't do anything but see you take the blow for me!"

"Y-you were worried about me?" Some happy tears of hope began to roll down his face.

"No! No!" She quickly denied. "Don't put words in my mouth! I said that I couldn't do anything, not that I cared about you. And that's why I need more power, because I can't let that happen ever again! I will do whatever it takes to get more power and I won't let anything or anyone interfere between me and the power. Not even you."

"But, I would never interfere." He said sounding offended.

"I hope so. Because if I ever have to choose between you and the power," she said coldly. "You will lose."

* * *

**Meltokio's Royal Palace.**

The Pope was the last one who arrived to the court, when he finally came he found all the men of the council talking between themselves. When the Pope took the central place, all the members of the council sat up, but before the Pope could say anything one of the council members' left hand punched the table in front of him.

"Why have you called us!" The man shouted with an indignant face. "Who do you think you are to summon the council of the king! Where is Princess Hilda!"

The pope chuckled.

"Sit down, and calm down. All those questions soon will be answered." The man didn't seem very convinced, but he did as he was told. "As you know there has been five days since the tragic loss of our king. Since that day, the princess has fallen into an enormous depression that has impeded her ability to govern her kingdom. Much to my regret, I have no other choice but to take the kingdom in her name until she recovers from her state."

"What!" The same man shouted. "There is no way you can do that! In the absence of the king, and if his heir is indisposed, it is up to us to name the temporal governor!"

That made the whole council begin to blab about the current situation.

"Shut up!" The Pope shouted making everyone stop talking. "Here in my hands I have a legal document, signed by the princess herself in a moment of lightness, allowing me govern in her name!" He said lifting a paper and giving it to the council members. "As you can see, she entrusted to me the heavy weight of governing the kingdom, and the wishes of the princess must prevail over the council!"

"This is crazy!" The same man shouted. "Hilda is in a big state of depression! How can we know that you didn't manipulate her into signing that document?"

"Can you prove those serious charges!" The Pope shouted. "How can you dare to dirty the name of the messenger of the word of Martel! How dare you insult your superior!" the Pope lifted up his scepter and pointed to the man with it. "Guards! Send that pagan to the dungeons!"

Two imperial knights took the man by the arms and dragged him out of the council.

"What are you doing! Why do you allow him to do this! Can't you see what he is doing!" He asked to the rest of the council members. "Albert! Le'Blank! Beaumont!" he pleaded, but no one listened him.

The Pope sat down as he tried his best to hide his smile of satisfaction as the man was carried to the dungeons.

"Things are going to begin to change here, now that the Voice of Martel rule this kingdom. Beginning for those pagans of the slums."

* * *

**Triet, Renegade's Base**

"I want an exphere!" Alice shouted upon entering in what seemed to be Nickolay's laboratory. She was followed by an ashamed looking Decus.

Nickolay smiled to himself and hid it before turning his gaze to the newcomers.

"An exphere?" He asked as if he was surprised.

"You were right. I could be much more powerful with an exphere on myself."

"Well if you want some power, an exphere is fine. But if you want real power why not use a Cruxis Cristal?"

"A Cruxis Crystal? Richter wanted one too. Can't only chosens use it?" Alice asked.

"Of course not. Basically a Cruxis Crystal is an improved version of an exphere. The Cruxis Crystals where given to the chosens in order to make allow them to complete faster their task, but anyone can use it. We already tested it on other subject and it worked."

"Wait!" Decus interrupted. "Those things are only meant to be used by the Chosens! It could be too dangerous, Alice. I'm sure that there are other ways to get power, with some time we could improve."

"Shut up! No one is talking to you. Limit your opinions to when I ask for them: which is NEVER!" Alice commanded making a _"zip it"_ gesture along her lips with her fingers.

"Create one would be an almost impossible task." Nickolay said ignoring them. "Though… We could just take it from Sylvarant's chosen."

"Colette?" Alice smiled. "Yeah, it wouldn't be a bad idea. I have always wanted to teach that _"free spirit"_ a few things about real life." She giggled.

"As long as you don't kill her, I'm fine with it." Nickolay added casually.

"What? Why do you want to ruin all the fun?" Alice pouted.

Nickolay walked closer to Alice.

"You want the Cruxis Crystal for your reasons," Light was reflected in the crystal of his glasses. "And I want her body for mine. And I need her alive."

* * *

**I know, I know. Alice is being quite cold with Decus after all what happened in the Ginnungagap, isn't she? But what did you spect, she is Alice after all. **

**Reviews will be really appreciated. Not for me, but by the puppies, because every time you don't review this fic Alice kills a puppie.**


	9. The kidnapping

_**AUTHOR NOTES:**_

**I NEED A TEMPORAL BETA READER. My current beta reader will be on vacations for 3 months and unless I find someone to help me with my fic I won't be able to update my chapters. As a beta reader the work is simple, is just fix my errors and tell me your opinion of what's going on and what could I change or add to improve it. If anyone is interested ****enter contact with me.**

**Anony****mous reviewers:**

**-****Sturm and drang:**** You are right about Colette being kidnapped, he was kidnapped once in the 1º ToS, and the Vanguard was after her in the 2º one, but she is a chosen and there are only two of them. And the reason why my grammar is improving is provably thanks to the great work of my beta reader who is fixing all my errors and helping me to improve my English.**

**And without more delay here is the fic:**

* * *

**EPISODE 1: A NEW BEGINNING.**

**Chapter 9: The kidnapping**

**Iselia**** village**

The first rays of twilight lit the streets of Iselia. Colette walked through the streets of her native village, going from shop to shop, buying the ingredients to cook her famous fish soup. Lloyd had invited Genis and her to go to a goodbye dinner at his house before he left to travel to the mountains to help his father. And she accepted, with the condition that she would be the one to cook the dinner.

"Good afternoon, Alba." The chosen greeted with a cheerful smile to the old woman in charge of the greengrocery.

"Good afternoon Colette, what can I do for you?"

"I wanted to buy some fresh vegetables to make a fish soup for Lloyd, Genis and myself." She answered as she looked the vegetables tapping her inferior lip with the index.

"I see, so vegetables for three," the old woman said as she took the already-known ingredients for Colette's soup and putting them over a balance.

"Better make it for four, Lloyd eats like two."

The old woman smiled to herself and added a few more vegetables to the balance.

"How much it will be?" The blonde girl asked as she opened her purse.

"Let me see…" The old woman put on her glasses and watched the arrow marking the price closely. "Twenty-five gald."

Colette put a worried expression on as she counted her money over and over again. "I only have fifteen." She said with a sad voice. "Keep it for me for a while. I will go back to my house and I will take some more money to pay for it."

The old woman denied Colette with a shake of her head and stretched out her arm. "Give me your basket, you can pay me for it tomorrow or any other day."

"Are you sure?" The chosen asked doubtfully as she gave her the basket.

The woman smiled waved one hand up and down as she used the other to put the vegetables into the basket "Of course, of course; is not a big deal."

"Thank you very much, Alba." Colette thanked. As she walked away she turned and waved her arm in the air from side to side to say goodbye.

"Colette, be careful!" She shouted. "Watch where you walk!"

But by the time she had ended her warning, Colette had already fallen to the ground.

"I'm fine! I'm fine!" Colette shouted to not worry the old lady. She took the basket, and without lifting her gaze from the ground she cleaned her clothes, letting time pass until the blush, caused by the shameful fall, left her cheeks.

The old woman shook her head and smiled. "That girl, she is never going to change."

Colette left the village with the ingredients to the dinner and entered the forest to go to Lloyd's house. The forest had become a safer place after their last adventure. The number of monsters had been highly reduced and aside from some specific places, most of the monsters weren't aggressive. Two years ago just thinking of travelling through Iselia forest without any weapons was a foolish idea and a possible death, but not anymore.

Colette walked, thinking in her stuff when suddenly two long, black-haired ears called her attention. She approached the bushes and pushed them aside to see what was behind them. The girl smiled when she saw a little black bunny-like monster.

"Hello, little friend. What are you doing outside at this time?"

The bunny, seeming scared, took some back steps.

"No! No! Don't be afraid, I don't want to hurt you." She said, trying to calm the animal down. Colette put her hand into her basket, took out a carrot, and held it out to the inoffensive monster. "See, you can eat it."

The black bunny looked at the carrot with his reddish eyes and smelled it. Colette then began to wave the vegetable up and down in an attempt to encourage the animal.

"C'mon, I'm not going to hurt you."

The black bunny finally went towards the blonde girl and began to eat the carrot from her hand. Colette couldn't help but laugh softly, she loved the cute monsters like that one.

"OK. I should be leaving." Colette stood up and left the carrot to the little monster who took it with its paws. "Goodbye, little friend!"

As she went away she heard some weird noises behind her. When she turned to see what was happening, her eyes widened in horror as she saw the black bunny monster with its mouth wide open, standing over a red runic circle.

"What-!"

But before Colette could end her phrase, the little creature blasted a fireball from its mouth. Instinctively, she protected herself with the basket, but the force of the fireball pushed the Chosen backwards, burning the wicker basket in the process and making her fall to the dirt. She threw away the half burned basket and tried to stand up. It was then when she heard a low, dog-like growl behind her.

"Ahh!" She screamed in fear when she saw an enormous pink wolf-like monster drooling less than one foot from her.

"_What's going on? These kinds of monsters aren't supposed to be in this area."_ She thought frantically.

Colette regretted not having taken her chakrams with her.

"I can't believe how lucky I am. Isn't this the bimbo chosen of Sylvarant who I was looking for?" Someone said with a forced childish voice.

Normally, hearing anyone in such a situation would have been a relief, but this wasn't the case. She only knew one person in all of the world who liked to use a high pitched voice in a void attempt to look cute. The chosen lifted her eyes to confirm her worst fears. There she was, some feet away from her sitting with her legs crossed on a purple, floating, balloon-like monster, Alice.

"It-it's impossible." Colette said refusing to believe what she was seeing. "Emil and Marta killed you. They told us you were dead!"

"That brat really has guts." Alice grunted in disgust. "I'm quite alive, I can assure you of that." She said in her usual baby-talk.

Decus came from the brushes carrying his Iron-Maiden with him.

"I can't wait to put my hands on that kid for trying to kill you."

Colette looked frightened around herself. There was no escape and she didn't have her weapons with her, and even if she did she highly doubted that they could help her current situation.

"What do you want from me? Why have you come here?" Colette asked.

Alice smiled evilly.

"I want your Cruxis Crystal. You are wasting its power," The blonde half-elf explained "you don't deserve it."

"I will never give it to you." Colette said covering the crystal with her hands.

"That choice isn't yours, is it?" Alice then looked to her mate. "Decus! Take her."

Colette looked to the purple haired man with fear in her eyes. He couldn't help but feel a little bit of sympathy for her, but that wasn't going to stop him from fulfilling Alice's desires.

"It will be better for you if you don't offer any resistance. I wouldn't like to use force." Decus sincerely said putting a hand over her shoulder.

Suddenly a pair of pink wings appeared in a flash at the chosen's back surprising Decus and making him fall startled to the dirt. Alice was surprised as well but as soon as she recovered from the sudden appearance of the wings she pointed at the chosen with her the whip of her rapier.

"Please, try it. Try to fly. Give me a good excuse."

Sparks danced all along the whip. It was clear to Colette that as soon as she tried to fly Alice would cast a spell on her and she didn't know if she would be able to dodge it in time. But then something about the current situation called her attention.

"_Why hasn't she attacked me yet? Why is she holding herself__ back? Alice is not the kind of person who waits to get what she wants." _She thought.

But her thoughts were abruptly cut by a prick in the shoulder. She put her hand over it but before she could react her vision became all blurry. The last thing she saw before falling to the ground was a pink haired man dressed with a lab coat holding an empty syringe. Then all went black.

"I thought I made it clear that I wanted her body in perfect condition." Nickolay said to the blonde half-elf, annoyed.

"It was a risk that I was willing to take." She answered, shrugging as if it wasn't a big deal.

Alice jumped from Aramis and knelt beside the chosen grabbed the Cruxis Crystal on her chest.

"STOP! Don't remove it!" Nickolay shouted, stopping Alice. "I'm not sure of what could happen to her body if we removed a Cruxis Crystal like that. We should take it to the laboratory, I don't want to take any risks."

Alice blew, upset. "Whatever, let's take her. You are making this much more difficult than it should be." Alice stood up and softly kicked the leg of the unconscious chosen. "Decus!"

"Yes?"

"Take the pesky Colettie with you." She said, not stopping the soft kicks.

"Of course, my dear." Decus lifted the body of the chosen and put her over his shoulder. "I'm glad to be useful for you. I was beginning to think that you didn't-" He cut his own speech when he looked up and saw how Alice had left him behind and had begun to walk ahead with Nickolay not seeming to care about what he had to say.

Decus took a deep breath in disappointment. Sometimes, he wondered if something happened in the Ginnungagap that he didn't know about. For some reason she seemed colder than usual with him. He also wondered if it had also something to do with the time she spent with the mana-inhibitor and the powerless feeling she had felt all that time.

"_I was a jerk__. I should have been more caring with her."_ Decus thought as he kicked a stone. _"No… If I had been more worried she would have thought that I thought that she was weak and she would have been more annoyed, but at least she would have known how much I cared. Well, it doesn't matter a lot now anyway. Better deal with it and play along."_

"Yeah, that will be the best." He said to himself.

And with those words, Decus left Iselia forest with the kidnapped Chosen over his shoulder.

* * *

**Lloyd's house**

Lloyd was looking through the window with a worried expression. It was beginning to be night and Colette hadn't arrived yet.

"She shouldn't be this late." Lloyd said.

"Worried because she won't make the dinner in time?" Genis said, smugly

"Uh?"

"Seriously, how can you invite someone to your house and make that person cook for you."The white haired half-elf asked.

"She insisted in doing it. I tried to refuse, but she didn't accept a 'no' for an answer."

"You could have insisted a little more."

Lloyd went with Genis and sat at his side.

"It would have been useless. That's why I made her believe that she would do the dinner. But I have a surprise for her!" Lloyd said in cheerful tone.

"Don't tell me…"

Lloyd put his right hand under his chin and closed his eyes. "Yes! I have made the dinner."

"Oh my… What have you done?" The half-elf asked as he mentally prayed: _"Please Martel, not sandwiches"_

"I have done my culinary specialty!"

"_Not sandwiches, please, anything but sandwiches."_

Lloyd stood up from the couch and declared triumphantly "Dwarven potluck surprise!"

Genis closed his eyes and fists with force. _"Sandwiches, sandwiches, sandwiches, sandwiches. Please I want sandwiches."_

Lloyd smile soon faded and went again to the window.

"Colette is not usually this late." He said as he leaned his head against the glass. "Maybe something has happened to her."

Genis noticed the worried tone in the voice of his friend. He knew that Colette was more than a friend to him even if he was too shy to admit such a thing. Genis mentally chuckled. He couldn't help but find funny the fact of how the person who saved the world not once, but twice, was so shy and gullible when came to girls. It's not as if Colette was making it hard for him, it was obvious to everyone in the village but Lloyd that the chosen liked the swordsman as something more than a friend. But it looked like Lloyd was too oblivious to notice it.

"I don't think that she is hurt. She probably got distracted with something she saw." Genis explained, trying to calm his friend. "You know how she is."

Lloyd smiled as he imagined her looking at a ladybug. That was one of the things he loved about her: how much she loved all life and appreciated all the little things that no one else seemed to notice. She lived life as if each day was her last one, appreciating everything that surrounded her.

"Yeah, you are probably right. But I would prefer to search for her."

"Alright." Genis sighed. "I guess that she will be fine but we can take a walk to meet with her and come back together."

"You don't need to come with me. She can't be that far, we will be here in no time."

"I want to go with you." Genis said sounding a little offended. "She is my friend too!"

"Are you sure that you want to come." Lloyd asked bowing his eye brows in the shape of an _S_. "The Dwarven potluck surprise might get cold."

Genis quickly stood up and opened the door to the outside of the house.

"I'm more than sure. Let's go Lloyd."

The pair of friends left the house and went to the forest. They had to be quick or else the night would arrive. Both began to shout Colette's name in hopes to get an answer from the blonde angel, but neither of them got any reply. As time passed Lloyd became more and more worried, it wasn't normal.

"This makes no sense. Colette!" Lloyd said, shouting Colette's name at the end of his sentence.

"Don't worry, maybe she still is in Iselia." Genis said trying to cheer Lloyd up, but he had to admit that he was beginning to worry too.

"Yeah, maybe."

"Fine, let's do this: I will go to the village to see if she is in her house, and meanwhile you can keep looking for her in the forest." Lloyd nodded in agreement. "Don't worry, I'm sure that we will find her."

With those words Genis left, running in the direction of Iselia as Lloyd kept trying to find her in the forest.

As time passed, he felt more concerned. It was already night and he hadn't found her. In any other situation he wouldn't be so worried, but after all the hostility from the bad reputation he had received after the Blood Purge, he thought that maybe some people would have went after the people close to him. And if he added the fact that those people also seemed quite pissed with the Church of Martel, Colette looked like the perfect target.

Lloyd kept walking through the brush, immersed in his thoughts until he arrived to a clearing where he found a woman inspecting a wicker basket. Lloyd recognized the basket immediately. It was the one he made for Colette five years ago in their craft class.

The woman was dressed like a maid who had come out of Zelos' mind. She had a black katyusha* (maid headband) decorating her long, smooth, platinum-white hair. The fringe was cut above the eyebrows and her tabs, nails and lips were painted a noticeable black. Her black dress was open at the neckline and her wide and immovable skirt barely managed to cover her thighs. Her legs were covered by a pair of white stockings held by garters and on her feet she wore two black clogs that glistened in the moon's light.

But the thing that called most of his attention wasn't her flamboyant clothes, the black freckle under the left side of her lip or her green eyes, but the two metallic scythes she held. The size of the blades were the normal size for any scythe, but the length of the shaft was about a quarter smaller. She had one supported over her shoulder and the other touching the ground with the edge.

"Who are you!" Lloyd demanded.

In another situation he might have been more reasonable or polite, but a stranger armed with two weapons inspecting his dearest friend's possession wasn't exactly a reasonable situation.

"Lloyd Irving…" She said smiling to him. "I couldn't wait for this moment to arrive." Her voice, although calm, was full of hatred. "It has been three long years."

"I asked you who you are!"

The woman slowly stalk towards him, dragging the scythes on the ground behind her.

"Don't you remember me? I guess that it is normal for someone who has killed so many people to forget the faces of those who fought him in the past."

"Stop!" Lloyd unsheathed his swords and took a defensive position.

But the woman kept walking, slowly getting closer with each step until she was a few feet in front of him.

"The people you killed used to call me Beatrice, now I'm known as **Beatrix the Black Rose**, but you," she suddenly attacked Lloyd with one of her scythes, but the swordsman parried it by crossing his swords and taking the shaft between them, leaving the tip of the blade just a few inches from his neck, "you can call me Reaper."

While he was busy holding her right scythe she used the one in her left hand to try to rip his guts out. Lloyd pushed the scythe back and jumped away just in time to avoid a lethal blow, but not fast enough to avoid being scratched.

"Did you do anything to Colette!"

"Why should I give you any answer when you didn't even give us the chance to ask?"

"_She must be one of them."_ Lloyd thought.

The young woman ran towards him and began to attack him madly. One blow after another, Lloyd dodged and parried them all, but each time he stopped a blow with his sword she twisted and dragged her scythe backwards, breaking his defenses and wounding him in the process. The cuts weren't deep but each time he had more and more. To make matters it worse, the shaft was covered with a multitude of little slits made specially to fit the edge of a sword in them so her enemy couldn't move it up or down easily, making it so he was unable to properly counterattack. It was as if the only purpose of those weapons was to fight a dual sword fighter like him.

"I wasn't the culprit of the Blood Purge!" Lloyd said as he dodged and blocked he attacks. "Decus! A member of the Vanguard was!"

"How dare you to lie to me like that!" She screeched giving another blow. "Besides, who says that this has anything to do with the Blood Purge!"

Lloyd couldn't understand her motivations. If it wasn't for Palmacosta's incident, then why? Lloyd shook his head and focused again on the fight.

"_I have no time for thinking about this now, if I'm not careful she will tear me to pieces."_

Lloyd was doing his best to not kill her. After all, corpses didn't answer questions and he still thought that the silver-haired woman knew something about Colette's whereabouts. But she had proved to be more than skillful enough to kill him. If he didn't begin to be more aggressive it was just a matter of time before he ended up dead.

That woman was living proof that there was no better defense than a good offensive. She kept attacking the brown-haired swordsman ruthlessly, forcing Lloyd to keep his defensive position. Lloyd was walking backwards, trying to parry as few attacks as possible and focusing on dodging until he could find an opening, but he saw no chances to attack her without being wounded in the process. He had to change his strategy, and he had to do it quickly.

"Tell me!" Beatrice shouted, smiling. "How does it feel to be overpowered! How does it feel to know that you will die! How does it feel when the Reaper is after you!"

Finally, Beatrice cornered Lloyd against a tree. Using all her might, she tried to impale Lloyd's head against it only for the blade to sink deeply into the wood as Lloyd ducked out of the way. Lloyd took this chance to gain distance between them.

"This is the last time I ask this to you!" Lloyd warned her as she tried to pull out the blade out of the tree. "What have you done with Colette?"

"This is the last chance you give to me!" She asked, almost sounding as if she was trying not to laugh. "Look at yourself, you goddamn, babbling moron! You have nothing to do!"

With those words she instantly casted the spell _sharpness_ on her impaled scythe and released it by cutting through the trunk as if it was a piece of butter.

"This has just begun."

"_She is a half-elf!"_ Lloyd's mind screamed.

That completely trashed the strategy he had thought up. He wanted keep the distance between them and use artes to force her to take a defensive position, something that, by her fighting style, she shouldn't be used to. But if she was as good with spells as she was with scythes that, wouldn't work. Thought, there was only one way to find out.

Lloyd thrust his swords in the ground and lifted them an arc and shouted:

"Double demon fang!"

Two waves of energy cracked over ground like a pair of shark fins towards the self-proclaimed Reaper. But instead of jumping away, she smiled and thrust the blades of her scythe in the ground and did the same movement.

"Tear him in to pieces! Demon Maw!"

The two waves of energy mixed in one making an enormous wave of fluorescent green energy that crushed Lloyd's demon fangs, almost getting him in the process.

Lloyd frowned _"Just as expected, even though that looked like an arte, it was a spell."_

"Did you think that keeping your distance will keep you safe from me?" She asked arrogantly. "You cannot escape from death." Beatrice lifted her two scythes above her head and began to cast an incarnation. "The fatal hour has come, the reaper acclaim your soul," the wind around her began to swirl expelling the sand around her. "Crescent Moon Sharp!"

The blades of her scythes began to shine, emitting their own light.

Lloyd knew he had no choice., if he didn't fight to death, he would end being killed.

"_Inferno_! _Glacier_! Show your selves!"

Runic symbols began shine on blades of Lloyd's katanas. The one in his right hand began to burn in flames as it began to glow red-hot while the one his left hand had been covered by a white sheet of ice that froze the air around it.

"_Inferno_ and _Glacier_?" Beatrice asked, unimpressed. "_Judge_ and _Executioner_ would be more fitting names for those swords."

And with that said Beatrice jump and whipped a scythe in the air.

"Demon Maw!"

Lloyd moved aside fast enough to avoid a lethal wave that cut the ground leaving a track on it. As soon as she landed she tried to cut him in half with her other scythe but Lloyd parried it, sparks jolting as the blades collided.

Aside of the new shine on the blades, her fighting style hadn't change, she still kept a fast and brutal offensive strategy mixed with some flamboyant pirouettes as she slashed madly at everything in her path. It didn't matter to her if her scythes were going to collide against an obstacle whenever he dodged a blow; tress, rocks, everything was effortlessly cut in a half.

Beatrice smiled when he parried another of her attacks. She got ready to drag backward her scythes to cut him once again when Lloyd suddenly moved close to her and strongly kneed her in her stomach. Beatrice took a step backwards, bending over in pain.

"You!" She grunted, coughing.

The half-elf then joined both scythes by the ends, making it become a long shaft with each blade pointing in a different direction on each side. "I will tear you into pieces!"

She released the double sided scythe and, using what seemed to be a wind spell, made it levitate. Slowly, it began to spin faster and faster until the weapon appeared to reverse the direction it was spinning.

"Last Whisper!"

She threw the weapon towards Lloyd who was barely able to dodge it in time. The weapon crossed the forest chopping all the threes in its path as it turned around to go back to its owner. It wasn't until the double edged scythe lifted to the air that Lloyd noticed that Beatrice was ten feet above him. As soon as she took the weapon she separated both scythes and fell over Lloyd, brutally slamming her curved blades against his swords lifting a small cloud of dust due the force of the impact.

"I will kill you, you damn murderer!" She said as pushed against him with her weapons.

"I told you I'm not a murderer!" Lloyd replied trying to push her weapons away.

"How dare you to say something like that when I saw you with my own eyes! All you humans are the same! Pushing us to the edge until we have no other choice but…"

But when things were about to become clear, a white haired half-elf appeared casting a spell to help his friend.

"Fireball!" Beatrice jumped backwards avoiding the fire spell. "Lloyd! You are wounded! Are you OK?"

"Yeah!" He answered breathing heavily. "They are just superficial wounds, a gel will fix it!"

"You are a half-elf too!" Beatrice shouted in surprise. "How can you help someone like him!"

"I have no idea what are you talking about, but he is my friend, and don't need any more reason to help him!"

"Fine! My Mystic Arte will be enough to finish both of you!"

"Hey! Pretty face!" A new voice said, calling her attention.

Lloyd and Genis opened their mouths in surprise when they saw their red haired friend come from the nothing, the ex-chosen of the Tethe'alla: Zelos Wilder.

"You?" The red eyed girl asked astonished. "You are the chosen of Tethe'alla!"

"Ex-Chosen of Tethe'alla if you don't mind." Zelos explained.

"What are you doing here!"

"That's none of your business, but if you keep giving problems to my Bud and the brat,"

"Hey!" Genis complained.

"I will have to kick your pretty butt." The red haired man finished.

"Three against one!" Beatrice shouted irately. "You are nothing but a bunch of cowards!"

"Make it four." A black haired girl said from the top of a tree, holding three papers with each hand.

"Sheena!" Lloyd and Genis shouted happily in unison.

"Why didn't you look so happy when you saw me?" Zelos complained, faking an emotionally wounded voice.

Beatrice looked around. Each one of them were in a different position, closing all the paths of escape, she wasn't only outnumbered, she was surrounded.

"Shit! This was unexpected." The white haired woman murmured.

"Now you will tell me where Colette is and what you did to her!" Lloyd demanded.

"Where is Colette! Where is Colette! Where is Colette!" She said mockingly. "What are you, a broken record! I have no idea where the Chosen of Sylvarant is and even if I knew it why should I tell it to a narrow minded, shithead like you!"

"Wow, someone should clean that girl's mouth." Zelos commented.

"It looks like death wants you to live a little more, Lloyd Irving." Beatrice said intonating with contempt his name. "For now, I will have to leave."

"And how do you plan to leave? In case you didn't notice, you are completely surrounded." Genis said arrogantly.

"Am I?"

Using the one of the scythes as a witch broom, she sat over it with her leg crossed and made it fly in front of the astonished eyes of the group.

"Watch your back, Lloyd. The Reaper awaits in every corner!"

And with those words the woman dressed like a maid left the place.

"My, what's wrong with that woman?" Sheena asked to no one in special.

Zelos just kept looking upwards smiling as Beatrice left.

"_Black panties." _He thought.

Suddenly Sheena smacked his head with her first as she usually did.

"What are you looking at!" She muttered between the teeth.

"Ow…" He complained rubbing his head. "Nothing, nothing. I was just amazed because of how beautiful the moon was tonight."

"Yeah, sure."

Genis shrugged. "Those two will never change."

"We have to find Colette!" Lloyd said, already on track.

"What has happened to Colette?" Sheena asked concerned.

"Who would want to do anything to Colette?" Zelos asked.

"They took her! That's what has happened." Lloyd shouted almost sounding as if he was about to cry. "I knew that this would happen! This is my fault."

"What are you talking about?" Genis asked.

Lloyd took a deep breath not knowing if he should tell them or not. The first thought was lie to them but he knew he wouldn't be able to fool Genis, after all he was the person who knew him best, aside of the professor, Colette and Dirk. Now that he had mentioned it there was no reason to hide it anymore.

"Tell us Lloyd, what's going on?" Genis asked, more concerned this time.

"Fine, I will tell you." Lloyd said knowing that he had no other choice. "There are still some people who think that I was the responsible of all those things that the purple haired jerk did. At first there where only a few people insulting me and the church of Martel but after some time, some people began to attack me and call me a mass murderer." Lloyd closed his eyes and rubbed his fore head with his hand. "I told it to Raine and she said that she would go to Palmacosta to try to solve it peacefully. But I'm thinking that that white haired woman was one of them, and when I found her she was inspecting Colette's basket."

"Why you didn't tell us anything!" Genis asked offended.

"I didn't want you to worry about me."

"Wait a moment…" Genis said with a thoughtful gaze. "That's why you wanted to leave, wasn't it! You weren't going to go with your father to the mountains, were you? You wanted to deal with it all alone again!"

"Well…"

"I knew it! I could have expected this from my sister, but not from you Lloyd." Lloyd was about to reply but Genis seemed to be really angry. "What has happened to you? Why you don't tell anything to us, aren't we your friends!"

"Calm down, boys." Zelos interrupted. "First we need to take care of those wounds, then, we will see."

Genis nodded in agreement. He still was angry at Lloyd, but he still was his friend and his health was before any argument. But Lloyd didn't seem to be happy with that.

"I said I'm fine! We have to chase that girl to get the information we need."

"And how will we do that? Flying?" Zelos asked.

"Yeah, Lloyd, you got to calm down." Sheena said trying to comfort her friend. "Those wounds could get infected unless we treat them. Besides if Colette was dead we would have found her corpse here or signs of aggression, the fact that we didn't find her means that she is alive."

Genis looked at Sheena with his mouth open wide, not really believing what he had heard.

Zelos put his hand over his fore head and shook it.

"Please remind me to not get you to my sister's birthday." The red head said. "But aside of her poor touch to saying things, she is right. If Colette had been wounded, we would have found some evidence of that, the fact that we didn't find anything means that she is probably fine."

Zelos knew that his logic wasn't completely true, but right now what he needed was to calm Lloyd down. He knew how much he cared about the blonde angel and if he didn't choose the correct words, he would only make Lloyd worry more about it.

Lloyd didn't seem very convinced by the idea but he had to admit that he didn't have much better choices. He couldn't chase Beatrice and he had no clue of what had happened to Colette besides the fact that the white haired half-elf had known more than what she said. And even if the wounds weren't too deep, they hurt anyway and he must admit that Sheena was right about the more-than-possible infection if he didn't heal them.

"Fine." Lloyd sighed and began to walk to his house. "Let's go back home."

"Do you have anything for dinner?" Zelos asked randomly.

"Yeah! I prepared dwarven potluck surprise. Why, are you hungry?"

Zelos lost his hunger as quick as he heard what he had for dinner.

"No, no, no, no." The red head said sounding almost scared. "I was just concerned for Sheena since she hadn't had dinner."

"Oh, don't worry Sheena." The brown-haired swordsman said to his ninja friend as he put an arm over her shoulder. "You can have as much stew as you want."

Sheena didn't like the dwarven potluck surprise. In fact, Lloyd was the only human who could stand the super spicy dwarf food, probably because a dwarf had raised him. But she didn't want to wound his feelings. And besides, if she wanted to marry him in the future she had better get used to it.

"T-Thank you Lloyd. I can't wait to eat it" She said, blushing. Then she turned back her head and looked at Zelos, who was smiling at her, with a murderous gaze and whispered: "I will kill you for this."

* * *

**K****atyusha*:** is the maid's headband.

**Good news to everyone. Thank to your reviews ****three puppies were saved from Alice's hands (sadly other hundred didn't have the same luck). **

**Now if you don't mind I would like you to press the review button ****down there before Alice comes back from the pet shop. I warn you, she is not very happy because she didn't have a lot of screen time in this chapter.**


	10. In the hands of the devil

_**AUTHOR NOTES:**_** Well, this section should be called "Author apologies" because it took me more time than intended but luckily for me the temporal beta-reader did an amazing job.**

**Anonymous reviewers:**

_**-**__**Sturm and drang:**_** I agree when you say that Beatrice's past is a little cliche, but what makes it "special" is that usually is that it was Lloyd Irving (the hero) the one who killed her family and friends. As you will see one of the points of this fic is to show that how the heroes for some people are the villains for others. Anyway I hope that this chapter throws some light over Beatrice's character. And sadly your 2º review didn't count as a full review just as a half, so you only saved one doggie and a half…**

**EPISODE 1: A NEW BEGINNING.**

**Chapter 10: In the hands of the devil.**

(…)

**Palmacosta, Dias' house.**

It was early morning and Dias was in the living room sat over a chair working on a music box putting slowly all the pieces together with extreme caution. As a true craftsman, one piece at a time, he patiently completed the musical device when suddenly the bookshelf behind him spit in two revealing the stairs to what seemed to be a dungeon and coming out of it was a silver-haired woman dressed like a maid. Dias turned his head to her and smiled.

"About time" He said calmly smirking.

"Ho, could you just shut up and save your condescension to someone who is interested in it?" Beatrice replied in a bad mod throwing away her katyusha.

"I think I told you not to face him yet." He said smiling ignoring her complains about his behavior.

"For your information I was _THIS CLOSE_," she said putting her thumb and index almost together, "to getting him. If it wasn't because those morons showed up to help him, he would be nothing more than a bunch of minced meat right now. Damn coward!"

"The reason why I didn't want you to attack him wasn't because I didn't trust in your skills. It's because it wasn't the right moment."

"Huh?"

"How many times have we talked about this?" He said, scratching his forehead. "What's the first rule of war?"

"Carry the war to the enemy country so your country won't be injured in the process and you will be able to keep the war support?"

"You have been _this close_." He said putting his fingers almost together mocking her. "The first rule is not keeping the war support; it is getting the war support. Besides, we don't have it yet. We can't kill Lloyd right now because, even though a lot of people hate him, most of the world still sees him as a savior." Beatrice frowned when she heard the last sentence. "Don't take me wrong, we both know he is not the savior that people claim him to be, but that's how he is seen by most of the people. We have the support of almost all of the half-elves in Sylvarant. Also, thanks to the Blood Purge, we also have the support of the majority of the towns in Sylvarant. However, Luin, Iselia and almost all of Tethe'alla still see him as a hero. If we killed him now, our organization would be seen as the ones who killed the savior of the world. That would be bad publicity if we want to get rid of the Church of Martel."

"You told me that I could get my revenge when I was ready!" She shouted. "Well, now I'm ready!"

"Yes you are, but the time hasn't come yet. You need to be more patient." He said in a concerned voice. He understood her pain better than anyone.

In response, Beatrice only frowned and giving him a mean look with her crimson eyes she closed her fist lifting a finger in a rude way.

"Lift the finger in such an ill-mannered way isn't proper of a lady." Dias taunted.

"Why don't you come here and eat my lady's-"

Suddenly, before the conversation could go any deeper, the doorbell rang. Dias smiled as usual and put his hand into his pocket, taking out a pocket watch. He opened the golden cover and watched what time was.

"Just in time" He said, putting the pocket watch again in its place.

"Who are you waiting for?"

"Why don't you put on the black wig as well as something more appropriate? Then, you can go see them yourself?"

Beatrice grunted, but did as she was told and went to open the door for their visitors. Her eyes were suddenly filled with rage when she the pair who stood before them. One of them was a teen brunette with long hair and blue eyes. She had a pair of brown boots and a mini skirt that, for sure, couldn't let her kneel without showing her panties. The first word that came to her mind to describe her was _'slut'_. She was giving the hand to an ashamed and completely blushed blonde boy with green eyes who looked quite unsure about himself; the first word that came to his mind to describe him was _'pussy'_. She didn't know their names, but she knew that they were the ones involved with the massacre of the men and woman who worked for the Vanguard.

"Nice to see you" She said in a fake nice tone as she bowed her head to not show them her face full or rage. "Master Dias is waiting for you in the living room, please enter."

"Thank you." The guests answered politely.

Beatrice guided them to the living room where Dias was waiting for them as she wondered what kind of hidden intentions he had to invite them to their house.

"Marta, Emil, welcome" Dias greet as he stood up. "Please take a seat as we have a lot to talk about."

Emil and Marta sat down on the couch. Emil looked a little nervous and not really knowing what to say or how to act. Dias had invited them to their house for no apparent reason and they didn't know what to expect or what was worrying him more. What he did expect from them, and he had to admit that his calm gaze and his permanent smile was begging to freak him out, there was something in the way he looked at them that just wasn't right and he was beginning to feel uncomfortable.

"Oh, how impolite from my part, where are my manners." He suddenly said. "Do you want something? Tea, cakes, anything?"

"No, no" Marta quickly replied "We don't want to bother you."

"It is not a problem." Dias assured. "Are you sure that you don't want anything?" The teens denied. "Fine then, I guess that you are wondering why I invited you and that you may have a lot of questions but I'm quite interested in your crusade against the Vanguard. If I'm not wrong you are the daughter of Brute Lualdi aren't you?"

"Yes. I am Marta Lualdi."

"It must have been terrible to have to betray your own father and kill the Vanguard members that once were on your side."

Something twisted inside Marta as he said those words with his never fading smile. She knew it was true that the people she killed were the people that were once her allies. However, she never really was close to any member of the Vanguard aside Hawk and not even he was that close to her. Even so, even if she knew that she took the right decision, something felt wrong about what she did.

"Have you called us just to make her feel bad!" Emil shouted to everyone's surprise. Even Emil was surprised about what he said. All he knew is that Marta felt bad. When Dias spoke like that, he heard in his mind the words of certain grumpy redhead _"What are you, a man or a dog"_. After that, he had lost the nerve and the rest was history.

Dias inspected him carefully. His eyes shined with an unexpected determination from someone who seemed that shy.

"Oh, no please, that wasn't my intention at all. It must have been a really tough situation. I was concerned. I didn't want to make you feel bad." He said taking Marta's hand between his. "Do you feel alright?"

Marta just nodded.

"I'm, I'm sorry…" Emil apologized. "I don't know where that came from."

"Don't worry"

The black haired musician stood and began to walk in circles.

"Well, one of the reasons I asked you to come here is because I'm intrigued about all that happened during the Vanguard events and I'm especially interested in that thing called… what was it, Solum's Core?" The pair nodded. "Good, well as I was telling you, I'm interested in Solum's Core and in that guy called Decus. I think that kind of information can be the key to dissolving the vandalism and smear campaign against Lloyd and the rest of heroes of regeneration."

"Is Lloyd in danger!" Emil asked worried.

"No, no. Not as far as I know, but there has been a bunch of despicable bandits who are beginning to organize and try to find more people to support their cause. All I know from the guys I have interrogated is that they are led by a half-elf who calls herself _**Beatrix the Black Rose**_. So, will you help me with your information?"

For a moment Marta could have swear that his smile turned from polite to proud but she didn't gave a lot importance.

"Yeah, we will." Emil answered.

"Perfect."

(…)

**Desert of Triet, Renegade's Base.**

Followed by Alice and Decus, who was holding Colette over his shoulder, Nickolay entered the medical room of the Renegades Base. The ex-desian scientist took a pair of scissors, put them on the table, and told Decus to put the unconscious body of the Chosen over the operating table. Meanwhile, Alice watched impatiently how Nickolay meticulously fitted the operating gloves as if it was part of a medical ritual, making the gloves fit finger by finger.

"Aren't you done yet?" Alice asked tapping impatiently the floor with her feet.

"Yes!" He said with a wide smile stretching the rubber and releasing it making it snap. "Let's do this."

By his smile and the look on his eyes, it was easy to tell that he was enjoying being back in business.

Using the scissors, he cut her dress from the top down, leaving the teen blonde only with her bra and the black leggings. Unceremoniously, Nicolay cut the bra leaving her upper body completely exposed. Decus suddenly turned back and closed his eyes with force.

"No need to be jealous my dear Alice! I only have eyes for you!"

"Stop acting like an idiot Dumbo-Decus! I'm not jealous, in fact I couldn't care less!"

Nickolay himself was too excited by being on duty again to care about whatever they were talking about. The adrenaline ran through his whole body, making his extremities tickle as he prepared the material to begin the extraction of the Cruxis Crystal. It had been years since he had a body in his hands. Oh, the things he couldn't wait to do to it; open it, stab needles, extract blood or do whatever it was necessary to satisfy his curiosity. However he had to hold on to his composure. This was the Chosen's body and it was too important to mess with it, for the time being.

Using a syringe, he extracted some blood and put it into a machine. He then injected two needles into the arm of the Chosen. In the extreme of each needle was a tube that entered in the machine. When he activated the device, it began to drain blood from one of the needles and go back into her body through the other.

"What's that thing?" Alice asked.

"I'm glad that you ask. This is one of my creations: _'The Mana Hemopurifier'_. I'm sure that you might wonder how it works-"

"Not really." She interrupted uninterested.

"So I will explain it to you." The half-elf said playing deaf. "First of all I put in the diagnosis device a blood sample of the subject and it analyzes the percentage of mana in the blood of the subject. Then the blood runs through these tubes from the body to the machine and, if the machine detects an anomaly in the quantity of mana, the hemopurifier corrects and injects it into the body again preventing, in this way, the exbeulization of the subject in the extraction process of the exsphere." He explained proudly. "Of course since the Cruxis Crystal is already freed, there should be no problems with the extraction. It shouldn't cause a mana disorder and an overfeeding of the cells making them reproduce almost without control. It's better to be safe than sorry."

"So can you extract the Crystal already?" Alice asked impatiently, not really caring about how the hemopurifier explanation worked.

"Yes" Nickolay said as he lifted both hands and looked at the roof. He then shouted: "Let's begin the extraction!"

"_Finally!"_ Alice thought. _"Once the process of the extraction is over I will take the Cruxis Crystal and with its power I will become completely invincible. No one will ever tell me how to life my life! Then, I will get rid of any menace, beginning with Martmart and her friends! I will kill her for what she did, but not before torturing her dear boyfriend in front of her!"_

Alice recovered from her fantasy to see the extraction of the Cruxis Crystal; a process thatpromised to be entertaining. Alice rubbed her hands in anticipation.

"_I bet he has to cut her flesh with a scalpel. I wonder what could happen if I stumbled over him while he is cutting her." _Alice giggled as a little girl as she thought about the possible consequences of her 'accidental' stumble.

Nickolay took the Cruxis Crystal along with the key-crest and removed it with the hand. "Operation completed." He said putting the Crystal over the table.

Alice looked him in disbelief. She couldn't believe that he had made such a show just to take it like that.

"Are you kidding? It was that easy?" She asked.

"Yeah. Why should it be harder? The only point of carrying her here was to put her in the Mana Hemopurifier just in case something went wrong." Then he looked to the numbers in the screen of the machine. "It looks like everything is pretty normal so, this is it."

In that moment Alice only wanted to scratch the scientist face with her nails and drive them deep into his flesh for making her lose very precious time.

"Can I watch, or is she still naked?" Decus asked.

Nickolay covered Colette's body with a blanket.

"Yes, you can. Though, I still can't understand what the bid deal is about a naked body. It's just a bunch of bones covered with flesh and filled with organs."

"Who cares? I finally have what I wanted!" Alice said, taking the Cruxis Crystal.

Her hands trembled nervously as she pulled it closer to her chest.

"Alice, are you sure you want to do this?" Decus asked taking both of her hand preventing her to put it in her chest. "It can be dangerous. If you want we can try it on myself. That way, if everything goes alright, you can use it. What you think?" He asked smiling, hopefully with a concerned look.

Decus didn't want Alice to take any unnecessary risk. He knew she was strong but he couldn't stay quiet and let her do something that could end up causing her serious harm. He was ready to be her guinea pig if that meant keeping her safe.

"Don't touch me with your dirty hands!" She said releasing her hands of his. "What have we said about personal space?"

With those words, she closed her eyes put the Crystal on herself. As soon as she put it on, a chill went through her body. It was as quick as a lighting bolt, rising up through her spine, traveling through her arms and legs until it reached the tips of her toes and fingers giving her an energizing sensation. The shivering sensation of power she suddenly felt almost made her fall to the ground. A smile of pleasure was drawn on her face as she finally opened her eyes.

"Let's see what I'm able to do." She said smirking, evilly showing her fangs.

She pointed with her whip to an empty space in the room and began to cast a spell. Cerulean runic symbols began to run in circles on the ground as Alice concentrated.

Nickolay clicked a small button in his glasses a looked at the place where the spell was being incarnated.

_Proceeding to read data…_

__Loading__

_-Spell lvl.3_

_-Element: Ice_

"_She is casting a level. 3 spell without an incantation! I haven't seen that power in a half-elf since Yuan. And she is only a teen!" _He thought. _"I knew that something like this could happen, but I never thought that she would actually be able to do it."_

"ABSOLUTE!"

As the blonde half-elf shouted the spell command an enormous icicle multi-peaked burst through the floor.

"You did it Alice!" Decus congratulated. "I knew you could do it! You are the greatest!"

Decus ran to embrace her. Just when he was a few inches of her, Alice took a side step and tripped Decus making him fall to the floor cumbersomely.

"Yes! I did" she said, completely ignoring Decus groans of pain. "Now no one will ever stop me. No one will ever put a finger on me."

"I hate to interrupt your celebration" Nickolay chuckled at the irony of his own words. "As much as I love watching this, your ice block is unstable."

Decus and Alice looked to the icicle. It was quickly cracking and melting and, in a matter of seconds, it crashed over the ground leaving only a small pool of hailed water.

"That wasn't supposed to happen was it?" Decus asked reincorporating.

"What the-? Of course not!" she complained.

Alice once again cast Absolute without the proper incarnation but at soon as the deadly icicle appeared it crashed and melted down as fast as the first one.

"What's going on?" Alice pouted as she waved the toy-rapier.

"Looks like the Cruxis Crystal isn't working" The scientist pointed.

"What do you mean? I felt the power inside me!" Alice said, more than a little frustrated.

"That was probably the placebo effect. In short terms, you thought that you got the power and so your brain made your body react and feel the sensations that it thought you should feel when gaining power."

Alice felt ashamed when he finished the explanation. She had over reacted like that for nothing. Decus looked the disappointed look of Alice and walked towards the pink-haired half-elf.

"Then all we have done. It was for nothing?" The flamboyant lover asked. "How could you dare to give false hopes to my dear Alice?"

"Shut up! I don't need you to defend me Dumbo."

"There is no reason to be touchy." Nickolay said calmly taking a mechanic device and putting it over a table. "In fact, I think that I know what could be the problem. Could you give me the Crystal?" Alice looked at him distrustfully. "Please, if I wanted the Crystal from the beginning, I would have never given it to you in the first place."

Alice looked at him suspiciously and gave the advanced exsphere to the scientist. "You make a good point."

"Stay away" Nickolay warned. Alice and Decus looked at each other and promptly backed a couple of steps.

Nickolay placed the Crystal in a pincer. After that, he activated the machine he took seconds ago. The machine shot an indigo laser that impacted directly with the Cruxis Crystal sending a four colored rainbow through the other side of the Crystal.

Decus stared amazed. "Wow. That thing is actually pretty cool. What is it?"

Alice mentally face-palmed when Decus asked. _"Here we go, another unnecessary explanation from 'Mr. I-know-everything-and-love-my-own-voice'"_ She thought.

"I'm glad that you asked." Nickolay said smiling.

"_Sure you are" _Alice thought as she rolled her eyes.

"This is a mana laser. This machine sends a concentrated M-wave. It is a wave that causes a vibration in the frequency of mana. When the mana vibrates, its molecules rub against each other. This produces energy, and that energy emits an indigo light, which allow us to see the mana."

Decus nodded at him with a gaze that said 'I have Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder'.

"Basically it works similarly to how micro-waves work with the molecules of water." Nickolay explained with an 'easier concept', trying to make take Decus attention.

Decus just nodded again. Nickolay grunted.

"_Well, at least I have Alice's attention. She is a half-elf, much more cult and thoughtful than a human."_ The scientist thought. Then he looked to Alice who was looking at the tips of her hair.

"Since the body is made of mana, this laser could actually burn someone!" Nickolay shouted trying to attract the attention of sadist nature of the blonde.

"Nice" Alice said smiling.

Now that he had the attention of the half-elf, the scientist continued with his explanation.

"As you can see, the mana laser is crossing the Cruxis Crystal from side to side. However, when it crosses it, it is divided in to four different colors: blue, red, green and yellow. This is because the exsphere is corrupted."

"What do you mean by corrupted? Colettie was perfectly able to use it. We all saw how she opened her wings."

"Exactly. The Cruxis Crystal was sealed in a way that only the Chosen would be able to use it. It has been 'corrupted' by the elements of water, fire, wind and light."

Nicolay went over to a table. After pressing some keys, it created a three dimensional hologram of Sylvarant.

"Cool. This place is full of amazing machines." Decus said.

Nickolay rolled his eyes.

"These are the four elemental temples of Sylvarant." The scientist said as four red arrows appeared over the location of the four temples. "Each of them emits a kind of mana, all of which is linked to this Cruxis Crystal."

"So if we seal the four opened seals…" Alice deducted.

"Exactly. The Crystal would work in anyone." Nickolay finished.

"Wait a moment!" Decus interrupted. "What will happen if we seal the seals? Won't it break the balance of mana? It could be dangerous. I mean, the Journey of Regeneration was done for something, wasn't it?"

"Who cares?" Alice said "The seals were once sealed and nothing happened to the world. So what if some people suffer because of it? As long as I have the power nothing else matters." She finished with an evil smile.

"Besides, nothing will happen to the world." Nickolay said. "Opening or sealing the seals wasn't what joined Sylvarant or Tethe'alla. There is nothing to fear."

"Still…" Decus murmured worried.

"Still what?" Alice asked angrily. "I'm going to do this with your agreement or without it. What will you do?"

She hated when Decus doubted her ideas. He always ended doing what she wanted, but she was annoyed by the fact that Decus didn't agree sometimes with her choices, even if he ended following them. She wanted him to support all her decisions no matter what. Couldn't he see that what she was doing it was for the best?

"No- Nothing. I would never put myself against you!" Decus said, his voice sounding hurt. "I love you Alice. I would kill myself before doing anything that could be against you."

Decus looked sad to the floor. How could she not trust him after all he did for her? He once gave his life for her. What else could he do to win her trust?

"Empty words as always. But as long as you don't interfere I don't care."

Alice looked at his expression of sadness for her distrust in him, but instead of feeling proud, she felt something twisting in her stomach. The image of Decus being dead didn't help her. When he mentioned that he would kill himself, the flashback of events in the Ginnungagap came back to her mind along with the image of his body bleeding to death. It was an image that she had tried to erase of her mind, an image that reminded her how she felt when the swordsman blocked the sword with his own body, an image that reminded her of her weakness.

Nickolay looked at the pair. He knew that there was something weird in their relationship but he was more worried about another obvious problem.

"You might have not notice it. But how are we going to seal the seals?" The pink-haired scientist asked. "Do any of you know the angelic language?"

"No, but I know someone that does" Alice answered simply. She then looked at the Chosen, smiling like a demon.

"I don't think that she will cooperate." Nickolay said.

Alice touched the face of the chosen tenderly. "Don't worry" she said. Suddenly, she pressed her nails against her face, scratching her cheeks. "I'm sure that I can find a way to convince her."

(…)

**Katyusha*:** is the maid's headband. (Just in case someone doesn't remember it.)

**If wonder why most of the half-elves in Sylvarant are against Lloyd is because most of the half-elves in Sylvarant were Renegades or Desians and Lloyd and his friends pretty much massacred them. **

**Do you think I should rate this as an M fic instead of T as it is now?**

**Anyway, as always if you want to tell me something, ask me anything or just give me some feedback just press the review button and do it.**


	11. Death wears White

**AUTHOR NOTES:**** Well I have bad news and good news. The good news are that the chapter 11 is done and I was able to update it faster than usual. The bad news is that I need another temporal beta-reader until I recover my beta-reader. If someone want to be my beta-reader and help me with this fic make me know it with a PM or in the review.**

**Anonymous reviews:**

_**-**__**Sturm and Drang:**_ **You are right about that the summon spirits, at least the ones of Sylvarant (is so obvious that I don't even think that I can call it spoiler). But what I don't understand what makes Sylph different and what has it to do with Decus, but if you know something that I don't or you have think about something that I didn't you can tell it to me, it might be interesting, as I always say I'm open to the ideas of my readers. **

**And you are right about the time it takes me to update this fic. But I will explain you why it takes me so much time: first of all I'm Spanish so write my ideas sometimes can be hard, it usually takes me about two weeks to be satisfied with the content of a chapter; once I'm done I send it to the beta-reader and it usually takes him/her about one or two weeks to finish it. If we make a simple addition the result is between three and four weeks, and that's what it takes to me update a chapter. However you are right, and I think I could write a little faster as I did this time**

**And without more delay the second episode "The Journey of Degeneration" finally begins, enjoy it.**

**EPISODE 2: THE ****JOURNEY**** OF DEGENERATION.**

**Chapter 11: Death wears White.**

* * *

**Desert of Triet, Renegade's base.**

Colette opened her eyes slowly. Everything around her was blurry and was unrecognizable. She blinked rapidly trying to recover her sight but it was barely useful. Her mouth was dry and she felt as if her head was about to explode. She put her hand over her head and tried to remember what happened, but she couldn't focus in anything and the more she tried to remember the worse became the headache.

"_I was…. I was going to buy some food to cook dinner for Lloyd, but… but… Ahhh!"_ She mentally groaned. She just couldn't remember anything after that.

After a few seconds she finally recovered her view and looked around, but the light of the room was completely blinding. She covered her eyes and looked at herself in confusion, she wasn't wearing her usual clothes, instead a blue Desian armor covered her body. After a few minutes she was finally able to look at the room where she was. It was a little cubical room with a metallic door with a rectangular peephole at the opposite extreme. The only thing aside of her in that room was a bunk bed with white sheets stuck at the wall.

She didn't know what she was doing there, but she knew perfectly well what she had to do. She had to escape. She tried to stand up but her legs were still too weak to lift her body so she got all on fours and moved to the door. It wasn't until she was about to reach the door when she noticed that something pulled back of her neck. She instinctively put her hands her throat only to notice that she had a metallic choker around her neck. Following its circular shape with one hand around her neck until she touched the chain, scared, she looked backwards only to confirm what she feared, she was tied to the wall with a chain.

Suddenly the door opened revealing a tall man with purple hair, a white jacket with black crow-like feathers on the shoulders, and black tight trousers with a blue belt tied on his leg, holding a metallic plate. She instantly recognized the man before her. He was Decus, they guy who worshiped Alice.

"Guten tag*." He greeted with a friendly smile.

Colette panicked and crawled backwards until her back met the wall.

"Where I am? What are you doing here? What are you going to do with me?" She asked in fear.

Decus looked surprised the Chosen's reaction at his appearance. Usually girls fainted at his path because of his coolness, awesomeness, handsomeness and his heady and irresistible fragrance; but they never acted frightened in his presence.

"Wow, wow, wow; calm down girl. There is no need be scared." He said in a caring and calm voice. "Why are you acting like that?"

"Where I am? What- what has happened?" She asked.

"Well… You are in the Renegade's Base of Triet. We have just kidnapped you."

"What!"

"My… I think you are over reacting. Are you acting like that because we have kidnapped you?" Decus asked in a clueless voice.

Suddenly she began to remember more events of what had happened to her. She remembered how she was feeding a little animal and then Alice and Decus showed up from nowhere, but that was all. She couldn't make all the pieces fit. However knowing that was enough to understand how she has ended here.

"Anyway, I have brought you some food and water." He said kneeling before her and putting down the plate he carried with him in front of her. "Go ahead and eat. You must be hungry."

It was true that she was hungry and thirsty but she had more things to worry about than to eat. Nevertheless she was too thirsty to deny the tempting transparent liquid before her, so without thinking twice she took the glass of water and drunk it all. She drank it so fast that she spilled some of the water from the sides of her lips soaking her chin and neck.

"Thank you." Colette said politely. _"Wait a moment, have I just thanked my captor?"_ She thought and shook her head. "What-what do you want from me?" She asked a little frightened.

Decus sat on the bunk bed and looked at her.

"I don't really know…" He said taking a deep breath. "I have only come here for giving you some food. Aren't you going to eat it? Alice said it was _'meh'_." He mentioned a little disappointed. "I guess it's good enough. But I can't understand what could have failed this time, the recipe was perfect." He muttered to himself loud enough for Colette to hear it.

The Chosen looked the food in distrust, it smelt really good and it looked delicious but she wasn't sure if it was safe to eat it.

"Why aren't you eating it? Don't tell me that you also think that it is not good enough?" Decus knelt in a dramatic position looking upwards and hiding eyes behind his arm. "Not even the prisoners want my food!"

"Is not that I don't want it." Colette felt a little bad for him. "But I can't trust you, what if it's poisoned?"

Decus quickly lifted up and began to laugh. Colette smiled nervously, he had found something she had said funny but she didn't know if it was something good or bad. As far as she knew for what she have heard from Marta and Emil and the few times she had seen him, the purple-haired man wasn't exactly in his right mind, and his laugh wasn't proving her wrong.

"There is no need to worry Chosen!" He said moving his arms flamboyantly. "Why would I poison the food to kill you? That's stupid. If I wanted to kill you I would cut your head with my sword."

Decus was as weird as her friends had told her. When Emil told her how he acted in front of him in the church of Martel of Flanoir she laughed because she thought that he was exaggerating. Now she could see with her own eyes that he wasn't exaggerating at all. But despite his behavior, which she couldn't decide if it was funny or plain weird, he had made a good point about the food.

A bit unsure she took the fork and the knife, cut a piece of meat and put it in her mouth. It might have been because she felt as if she hadn't eaten in weeks but for some reason that piece of meat was delicious. His cooking skills were at the level of Genis and Regal if not even better.

Quickly she began to cut the meat and eat it; she hadn't eat something that tasty in months.

"So… What do you think?" Decus asked. "Alice said that it wasn't really good but she didn't tell me how could I improve it. What do you think it needs?"

Colette swallowed the food.

"It's good, it's really good."

"I'm glad to hear that." Decus said smiling for a second before the disappointment took him again. "Unfortunately those words are meaningless in your lips."

As she ate that food for a moment she forgot that she was captive in the Renegade's Base. Though, if something is well known, it is that all the good things never last long.

"I'm happy to see that you are awake." Alice said sweetly. "I was beginning to worry and think that I would have to delay what I have in mind for you."

"Alice!" Decus greeted. "What a joyful coincidence, we were just talking about you."

"Shut it up, Dumbo." She said looking away in disgust.

Colette stopped eating and looked the gothic-loli blonde before her. She knew that Alice would appear, but she wanted to believe that she wouldn't need to deal with the sadist. _'The Sadist'_ that's how Emil and Marta called her, a nickname that for some reason Alice hated, probably because it made her look less cute.

She had heard a lot of things about Alice, none of them being good. She had heard that Alice cut the skin and flesh of her own men in the Vanguard to write her name so they would never forget who their master was. She had heard that Alice killed young virgins and took baths of blood to keep her skin youth. She had heard that once she defeated a Knight patrol and forced the survivors to eat the bodies of their death comrades. She had heard that she loved to lick the tears of her tortured victims to taste their despair.

She knew that all those rumors had to be exaggerations, there was no one that evil in the world, it was impossible for someone to be so cruel. But even if she kept saying that to herself over and over the fear didn't disappear.

"As you can see your Cruxis Crystal is now mine." She said pointing the red exphere over her chest. Colette put her hand over her chest only to notice that the Cruxis Crystal was no longer with her. "But sadly I can't use it." She said pouting in a sad childish voice. "Could you be kind and seal the four elemental seals of Sylvarant so I can use it? You are not using it anyway."

"Give me back the Cruxis Crystal! You don't know what it can do! Is too dangerous for someone who is not a Ch-"

But Alice whipped her in the face with her toy rapier before she could end.

"You think you are in position to tell me what I can do and what I can't do!" Alice shouted angrily.

"I won't seal the seals!" Colette answered with staring defiantly. "Can't you understand how dangerous it is!"

Alice whipped her face again wounding her check and making it bleed.

"Wrong answer Colettie!" Alice closed her eyes and smiled sweetly. "The answer should have been: _'Yes, I will do whatever you want Mistress'_."

But Colette refused to give up. Alice clearly didn't know what was exposing to herself and to the world if she sealed the seals and used the Cruxis Crystal, and to be honest neither she did, but she was sure of one thing, it couldn't be something good.

"Can't you see that I can't do it! If I do, who knows what will happen to the world." She said trying to reason with Alice.

Alice whipped her again and looked at her as an annoyed master would do with her pet. "You surely love to bark. Please Decus, make her shut up!"

Decus bowed. "I'm on my way."

He buckled a gag with a red ball in her mouth.

Colette tried to say something but all she managed to express where a bunch of meaningless sounds.

Alice took her by the chin and shook her head.

"Look how? cute Colettie is now!" She said in a high-pitched baby-talk voice. "It fits you perfectly. After all pets can't bark to their owners don't you think?"

Colette kept trying to talk making some incoherent noises. After some seconds she finally understood that her efforts were useless and stopped.

"That's better." Alice smiled pleased.

The blonde half-elf sat over the buck bed? with her legs crossed and began to tap slowly her whip against her hand.

"You know Colettie. Up to this point I knew that you would react in this way, but it was so fun that I couldn't resist it." She explained.

Alice then she took her by the chin and close her mouth to her ear so close that she could feel her breath.

"My first thought was torture you until you accepted my terms." She whispered. "I was going to painfully force you to do what I wanted…" Colette opened her eyes wide as she heard horrified the details of what Alice had planned to her and how was she going to torture her. "And when you had finally accepted to do what I wanted I would have continued a little more, just for the fun."

Alice then stood up made a gesture to Decus and he left the room. She then looked back amused to Colette, who was now breathing nervously.

"But that idiot nerd wants you for something else and he told me that I couldn't hurt you." She pouted. "But I came up with a nice idea that will keep us all happy! But I can't tell it to you because it is a surprise."

Decus then appeared wearing the same white robe he had used to leave Tethe'alla in disguise and gave to Alice her black one.

"Aramis is ready." He informed diligently.

"Let's go then Colettie."

Alice put on the black robe and hid her head with the hood. She removed the chain that kept Colette tied to the wall and replaced it with a lighter one and held it with her hand and pulling forcefully she forced the blue-eyed girl to follow them as if it was an animal.

"Are you sure that there is no other way?" The purple-haired man asked scratching his hair.

Alice shrugged. "Maybe," then she smiled, "but this is the funniest one."

* * *

**Triet's entrance**

It was night and Alice, Decus and Colette where flying at seventeen feet off the ground on the purple balloon like monster that Alice named Aramis. When they were finally close enough to the gateway of the peaceful village of Triet, Alice commanded her pet to stop.

Decus covered his head with the white hood of the robe overshadowing his all his face but the tip of his nose, lips and chin.

"Wish me good luck my dear!" He said smiling to the object of his affection.

Alice looked at him unimpressed. "Just do it." She then put the feet over his chest and pushed him out of Aramis making him fall backwards against the sand of the desert lifting a small sand cloud.

"Ahhh... Why does she have to express her love like that and not like in the romantic novels, with kisses and hugs," Decus muttered.

"Since when kick someone from this high is a signal of love idiot!" Alice replied angrily. "Just go ahead and do it."

Decus knelt and put a hand over his chest and the other as high in the air as he could.

"I will dedicate this to you Alice! As a proof of my everlasting-" Alice took one of Colette's shoes and threw it to his face. "Ow!"

"Shut up Dumbo-Decus and go to the town!" As Decus went to the town Alice looked to her prisoner. "Mad lovers, don't you think? You can't live with them or get rid of them."

Decus walked unarmed to the entrance of the town where two guards were guarding the entrance.

"Hey you, identify yourself!" One of the guards warned. Decus kept walking silently towards the open door of the town.

"Halt!" The second guard shouted unsheathing his scimitar. "If you don't stop we will be forced to attack you! Stop now and identify yourself!"

Without slowing his steps Decus kept his path to the entrance ignoring the guards warning.

Once he was close enough the first guard attacked Decus with his scimitar but the purple-haired man took his arm in the air before he could land the strike and with a fast movement broke it and used his own sword to stab him in the back. His companion hurried to help his mate only to be kicked in the face before he could unsheathe his weapon. Without losing any second without missing a beat and before he could recover, Decus took the weapon of the second guard and used it to slit his throat.

Colette looked horrified the scene, in less than five seconds he had gotten rid of the guards that were guarding the gateway of the city. Alice noticed the look on her face and take advantage of the situation.

"Do you think that's fun?" The half-elf asked amused as Decus entered in the village followed by then at a prudent distance in the air. "If you liked that, wait until you see the real spectacle."

Colette tried to shout but thanks to the gag all she could do was emit some incomprehensible noises.

"Yeah, I'm excited at this too," Alice replied in a friendly tone ignoring her complains.

Decus entered in the town scimitars of the dead guards. The blood of his two victims was dripping through the blade tainting the sand at his path. All the villagers began to run to their houses fearing for their lives.

Guards began to appear from all the streets and alleys quickly surrounding Decus.

"You can't go anywhere murderer!"

Completely ignoring his words Decus looked to his left and to his right counting the number of guards and inspecting his surroundings.

"We won't let you hurt our people!"

The guards that were surrounding him rushed over him ready to kill him.

Decus easily dodged the blow of the attacker and slashed his stomach. The next one tried to slice his throat, Decus crossed his swords parrying the attack and kicked the assailant against two of his comrades. He then ran towards a guard and threw his sword staving it in the chest of the guard and jumped over his collapsing body to jump above the guards that where surrounding him, as soon as his feet touched the ground Decus, slashed the backs of three guards with a single blow.

Two more guards attacked, forcing him to move backwards as he parried the continuous blows until he was cornered against a vendor stand. Acting fast, Decus used one of the sheets of the small vendor stand and covered his foes with it allowing him stab them with complete freedom.

Three more guards ran towards him ready to attack him. The white dressed swordsman broke a jar full of oil with his swords and used of the torches illuminating the streets to ignite the blades of the scimitars. The guards took a back step when they saw Decus looking at them with his swords in flames. This time it was Decus who charged at them.

Colette saw how Decus' dodged, parried and slashed all the men one after another in a lurid deadly dance of blood and fire. She wanted to shout, to scream, to help all the innocents that were dying to protect their hometown. But she couldn't do anything. She turned her head and looked to Alice. Unlike her, she was looking amazed at the spectacle with a wide smile and a sadistic gaze, her pupils contracted like pinpoints. It was clear that Emil and Marta weren't exaggerating when they talked about her.

"Where's the popcorn when you need it." The honey-eyed half-elf casually commented. "Wow!" Alice jumped from the saddle. "Did you see that one! That guy really knows how to give a hand! And that other has just lost his head."

Colette found herself disgusted with Alice's behavior. Innocent people were dying and she kept making dark jokes about the fight. In the regeneration journey she and the rest of her friend had found a lot of twisted people, but this girl was reaching the top five in a breakneck speed.

"What's wrong with you, Colettie?" The girl in the cream-colored dress girl asked with faux concern. "You are not a funny girl, aren't you?"

The girl chuckled but stopped when something took her attention.

"What's that?" Alice asked herself looking at the roof patio of the inn. Two guards armed with crossbows ware aiming at Decus.

Alice jumped off Aramis and used a wind spell to silence and soften the landing. She walked close to the first archer and shot a thunderbolt she sent flying him out of the roof. The second guard turned back when he saw his companion flying out of the roof engulfed in a cloud of smoke, Alice instantly covered the whip of her toy rapier with a sharp blade of ice creating a frozen rapier and used it to stab the guard in the stomach. The man writhed in pain and Alice put the feet over his chest taking out her rapier of his body and pushing him out of the roof.

"Trying to be sneaky?" She muttered smiling to herself.

"Who are you!" A man shouted behind her. "Where are Brad and Tim?"

Without exchanging any word Alice began to cast an incarnation.

"_Mistress of Ice who commands in life and death,"_

Five panels of ice surrounded the guard before he could react imprisoning him in a rectangular sarcophagus of ice.

"What's going on!" He screamed from inside. "Let me out!"

"_,__torture those who oppose me."_

Colette looked horrified as a series of floating ice blades surrounded the ice prison.

"_Ice-Maiden!"_

Colette turned her head and closed her eyes away when the sharp blades crossed the cage mutilating the man inside it. Alice smiled to herself and leaned over the ledge to look the battlefield.

All the guards and civilians who were stupid enough to lift a weapon against Decus to protect their hometown and families were now dead, tainting the streets in with their blood and decorating it with their corpses. Alice chuckled when she thought of the people who will have to clean all this mess.

Without wasting more time she turned, putting two fingers inside her mouth she whistled to her floating pet which landed in the roof at the command of its master. She took Colette's chain with one hand and pulled her ungracefully to the floor.

"Don't tell anything of this to Decus. If you do I will be sad." Alice said putting on a puppy face. "We can't let him know what I did for him. This will be out little girl secret, OK?" The gothic-loli grabbed Colette by the checks and made her nod. "Sweet."

The Alice carried her to the roof patio to show her how the final act.

"Is a beautiful visage isn't it?" Alice asked to Colette. "But the best part is about to begin."

Alice began to search with her eyes until she finally saw what she was looking for.

"Dumbo! Behind those baskets!" She said pointing with her rapier the place where she wanted Decus to go.

The purple-haired man obeyed and pushed away the baskets, he frightened when he saw what Alice wanted him to find, a kid.

The kid child began to cry asking for help for her mother when Decus grabbed him. (it's a boy or a girl?)

"How adorable don't you think, Colettie?" Alice said sweetly to the Chosen.

Colette tried to scream through the gag. Alice answered pulling on the chain strangling her for a second and making her fall backwards to the floor.

"Leave my son!" A woman screamed running towards Decus. "Please don't do anything to him!"

Suddenly she was struck by an electric beam. Her limp body fell to the ground.

"Moooooooom!" the kid cried.

Colette looked shocked to Alice who simply puffed the smoke coming from the tip of her whip.

"So… What we were talking about before the interruption?" Alice asked calmly. "Oh yeah! The final act. Look at what has happened to this town. Do you know whose fault is it?" She waited a second before continue. "Yours! This is all your fault Colettie. If you had agreed to help me from the beginning I wouldn't have needed to all of this. You forced me to do this Colettie, you could have helped me but instead; instead you forced me to do THIS." She finished showing her the village full of bleeding corpses.

Colette knelt defeated and began to cry. Alice smiled amused as she saw how efficiently and easily her mind games worked with the Chosen.

Alice knelt at her side and put her lips near her ear. "This is only the beginning Colettie." She was so close that Colette could feel her warm breath stroke her ear. "If you don't want to help me because you want to protect these people, I will go town after town killing them all until you have nothing to protect." The sweet tone she used in explaining this made Colette shudder in fear. "To show you that I'm not joking I will begin with this kid."

Colette wanted to yell for her to stop, but was only able to shake her head.

"What? You don't want me to kill this kid?" She asked pouting.

Colette kept shaking her head, her face was red and full of tears.

"What? You want me to tell Decus to kill the kid? I don't understand you Colettie. Try to be more precise." Alice pretend a sad voice. She perfectly knew what Colette wanted, but she hadn't had so much fun in a lot of time and she was going to enjoy her suffering. She was going to enjoy the delicious taste of her salty tears until the last one.

Meanwhile in the middle of the street Decus was holding the kid by the neck against the floor waiting for Alice's orders. The kid was crying in fear but no one came out from the safety of their houses, he was alone, no one would take any risk for his life.

Decus' pulse began to tremble when he noticed how the kid looked at him, pleading for his life in fear. He knew that look; it was same look he had eight years ago when he was about to be killed for something he never did. He knew better than anyone how the kid felt. The feeling of loneliness, the knowledge that no matter how much you screamed no one will go to help you, desperate for not being able to do anything to survive, the fear of the inevitable, the knowledge that you were going to die no matter what.

"So… Will you help me?" Alice asked tapping her lower lip with her index.

Colette nodded exhausted between tears.

"See? I knew that we could reach an understanding with each other" Alice said in a friendly voice petting Colette's head. "Release him!" She ordered coldly to Decus.

Decus cried in relieve, some tear fell over the kid's check, and released the little boy who ran to the collapsed body of her mother.

Alice forced the Chosen onto Aramis and landed to get Decus. The purple-haired man dropped his weapons and mounted the floating beast leaving the town with Alice and Colette. As they left the town he looked backwards to the slaughter he did. To all the death he had caused in the name of love, he closed his eyes and looked away trying to make the image disappear. Tomorrow would be a long day for the people of Triet.

* * *

**Renegade's base.**

Back in to the Renegade's base Alice commanded Aramis to land and pushed Colette off of her pet making her have a showy fall. Alice, jumped out of her pet and walked to the door of the main corridor, followed by Decus.

"Did you see how I beat their asses?" Decus asked moving his body as if he dodged and parried some invisible swords with an imaginary sword. "And when I ignited the swords! That was totally badass wasn't it?"

"Accompany Colettie to her cell," Alice said, covering her mouth as she yawned, totally ignoring Decus's antics. "I'm sleepy."

Decus, disappointed by Alice's lack of praise, did as he was told and carried their prisoner to her cell and untied the gag that plugged her mouth. Colette coughed and moved her pained jaw.

Decus was about to leave when the Chosen called for his attention.

"Why did you do that?" She asked as if she really didn't understand his motivations. "When I saw you in Hima I thought you were different."

"As long as she is happy, I'm happy. That's all it matters to me."

"Would you have killed that kid if she had told you!"

Decus couldn't tell if her words were filled with sadness or hatred, or maybe it was a mixture of both. Unhappy with where the conversation was going, he quickly exited the cell without responding. He turned down the lights and looked at her for a moment before leaving.

"Yes."

(...)/(...)/(...)

* * *

(...)/(...)/(...)

**Words:**

-Guten tag= "Good afternoon" in German. **(Why I made Decus talk in German? Well, if you pay attention whenever Decus fights all his attacks are written in German so I thought it would be a nice touch to make him spell some caual words in the language of passion)**

**-If anyone thought that just because Decus and Alice were the main characters they were going to be nice guys… Well, this chapter talks itself. What will they do? What will happen to the world? **

**Critical or encouraging reviews will be appreciated, I always read them and I like to know your opinion and ideas. Not to say that since there aren't more Decus&Alice fics being updated your reviews are the only way to know if people like this pair and if writting all of this does worth it.**

**And now a question to all of you, readers. Do you think that I should include skits in my fic?**


	12. No more heroes

**AUTHOR NOTES: As I told you in the last chapter I had no beta reader unless someone wanted to help me or until my beta reader came back luckily the last one happened some days ago and I have been finally able to update it. It took a while but here it is. **

_**Anon**__**ymous reviews:**_

**-haraS:**** I have the intention to finish this fic. And don't worry about not being able to be my beta reader, I have other one now who is doing a quite good job. And thank you I also think that my English is improving but the reason why this fic is readable is because of the job of my beta reader. Thanks for the review.**

**-****Benji:**** No problem, I like to write about them, and I'm glad to see that there are people who also like them too.**

**-Sturm and drang:**** Personally I think that all the links Decus could have had with Solum's Core were broken when Marta hatched it. I guess that we have different PoV. However you were right when you said that the exposition to Presea and Colette to the Cruxis Cristal changed them, and this is something that will have some importance later in the fic. And even if I have no obligation to update faster I should because at this rate finish this fic will take me years, literally, so I will try to update faster.**

**EPISODE 2: THE ****JOURNEY OF DEGENERATION.**

**Chapter 12: No more heroes.**

* * *

**Triet Renegade's base**

Alice smiled as she woke up with the smell of the freshly made pancakes. The sweet aroma was so delicious that she could almost taste it. It has been a long time since she had the chance to eat something that delicious. And with all the commotion of the last few days she had almost forgotten the little pleasures of life, like a good breakfast served in bed.

"Can I come in mein lieber schatz*?"

"Sure."

Decus came in holding a plate with pancakes and a glass full of chocolate milk.

"I have made you breakfast, my sweet angel."

Alice rolled her eyes, but didn't bother to reply. She was too sleepy and it wasn't like it was going to change anything. After all, she had almost gotten used to his continuous flirting and attempts to win her heart. At the beginning. She had felt embarrassed by his behavior and she tried to stop him, but he never took a _"no"_ for an answer and always managed to transform her complaints and insults into some kind of display of affection that only existed in his mind, so she ended up giving up. He was obviously a lost even thought that Dumbo was an acronym of **d**ashing, **u**ndaunted, **m**ajestic, **b**rilliant and **o**h-so-sexy; instead of its obvious meaning, for the sweet love of Martel!

Decus handed her the plate. The pancakes were piled with melted chocolate and on one side of the dish a heart with their initials united by an X inside was drawn with strawberry syrup. Could it be any cornier? Alice sighed and cut a piece of the pile of pancakes and then scraped it in the jam, deleting the love message, and ate it.

Decus pouted, disappointed when he saw that; but after all, that was why the syrup was there. He turned back and walked towards the door to let Alice enjoy her breakfast as she liked: alone, when suddenly her angelical voice called his attention.

"Hey, Decus." She said as she ate a piece of pancake.

His heart jolted with joy.

"Yes? What do you want? Just tell me and I will do it. A foot massage, maybe?"

"Oh my no! I…" she stopped to put another piece of pancake in her mouth. "I want you to clean Aramis, Porthos and Athos. If I'm going to ride them to go to the temple, I want them to be clean and smell good. So try to be useful for once," she paused to put another piece of pancake in the mouth, "and take a sponge and give them a bath." She said, her mouth full as she waved her hand to dismiss him.

"Oh! That… yeah, I guess you are right." He babbled. "They are… they are… dirty and someone has to clean them. And I wouldn't be a gentleman if I didn't do it for my beloved."

Decus made a bow and closed the door behind him. He felt like an idiot for thinking anything else. After all, she hadn't thanked him for anything in years! But he wasn't going to feel self-pity, no! Alice hated those people who only mourned about themselves instead of doing something about it. He knew what he had to do! He had to transform all that disappointment into will and use it to leave her pets so clean that she would feel proud to have him at her side.

"Yes, that's it Decus! All that is worthwhile in life is hard to get!" He said cheering himself up.

* * *

**Palmacosta**

Lloyd, Zelos, Sheena and Genis landed with the Rheiards at the entrance of town and walked in when suddenly, Lloyd stopped.

"Aren't you going to come in, Lloyd?" Sheena asked, noticing that something wasn't right with him. "You look a little pale. Do you feel alright?"

"I don't know if I should enter…"

"What!" Genis shouted. "It was your idea to come here to find my sister. What's wrong, Lloyd?"

Lloyd scratched his forehead, putting on a worried grimace.

"It's just that, after everything that happened with the Blood Purge, I don't think I'm very loved by some people here."

"But you didn't do it." Sheena interrupted. "That crazy smelly dude did it! Hasn't the Governess Dorr explained it all?"

"Yeah, but tell that to all the people who swear having seen me killing their friends and families when my only defense is a magical elemental device, the existence of which I can't even prove."

"Don't worry, bud." Zelos said, grabbing him by the shoulder. "If someone tries to hurt you, they will meet the everlasting rage of Zelos."

"That's not the problem. I'm not afraid of the people that might attack me." Lloyd explained. "The problem is that I don't want to go in the town and remind them what happened that day, even if I didn't do it, some people still think that I did, and I can swear to you that seeing the face of the person who killed someone dear to you is not something easy to do."

Lloyd walked back and sat on a rock. "So why don't you go in and tell Raine that I'm here."

Lloyd hated to be in that sort of situation. He should have gotten used to it after all the time he spent trying to find out who impersonated him, but it was nearly impossible to get used to the continuous gazes of contempt. However, the worst part was the kids, all those unfortunate children who lost their parents. He didn't even have the valor to look at them anymore. Those gazes of fear and hatred nailed in the deepest part of his heart like a burning needle.

"Don't worry Lloyd," Sheena said, interrupting his thinking. "I know a secret ninja technique that can help us with this."

"Wait, you… What!" the chocolate eyed swords man asked in surprise.

"Calm down, you will soon understand."

Sheena took a paper and wrote some words in her native language and stuck it over his chest. The ninja then put her hands together and began to make some symbols, moving her palms and fingers, as she muttered something in Mizuho's language. Suddenly, the paper began to shine and before Lloyd could ask what was going on he was engulfed by a cloud of white smoke.

"What- what was that?" Lloyd asked, coughing and waving his hand, trying to get rid of the smoke.

"Why don't you look at yourself?"

When the cloud disappeared completely, Lloyd looked at himself. He was dressed in a black ninja suit typical of Mizuho with his swords crossed over his back.

"I know is not a real solution to your problem, but it may help you until we find Decus and Alice at least." She pointed out.

"Yeah, thank you Sheena. If someone asks I can say that I was sent from Mizuho to protect you." Sheena blushed when Lloyd mentioned that he would protect her. "Wait a moment!" Lloyd exclaimed. "What did you just say about Decus?"

"Nothing! I didn't mention him." She said, waving her hands defensively.

"Yeah, I'm quite sure that you said that you would find him. Are they alive?"

Zelos put his hand over his forehead and sighed in disappointment.

"Sheena, you are without a doubt the worst ninja that Mizuho has ever had. You fall in all the pits and you are unable to keep a secret." He chided

"What did you say, stupid chosen!" Sheena shouted angrily.

"Stupid _Ex-chosen_ to you, my lady." Zelos pointed, as he covered his ear. "And you are noisy, too."

"Look, idiot, I-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down a moment, love birds." Genis interrupted trying to relax the atmosphere, but much to his chagrin, the effect was the opposite.

"What did you say!" Sheena roared looking the white haired boy with a murdering gaze.

Zelos just smiled amply as he nodded.

"Did I just say that aloud? Oh my. Look I… I'm sorry I didn't mean that! I-I just wanted to relax the atmosphere. I'm sorry, ok?" Genis said scratching his head and smiling with sympathy.

"You shouldn't be so harsh with the kid, Sheena. He is just saying what everyone is thinking. But who can really blame you for having a crush on me? It's not as if anyone could resist this." Zelos said, pointing to himself.

Sheena was so red that she looked as if she would explode at any second. In fact, as weird as it could sound, Genis could swear that the temperature might have risen a few degrees around Sheena. But even in that sort of situation, Zelos looked at her with his hands in his pockets as if everything was alright. Genis didn't know if he had everything under control or if he was just plain stupid. However before his existential question could be answered, the conflictive situation was interrupted again, this time by Lloyd.

"Wait! Did you say that Decus and Alice are alive? I thought that those two were killed by Marta and Emil. That's what they said."

Zelos was the one who answered his question. "Well, I'm afraid that those two are quite alive. I saw them in Meltokio with my own eyes when their penalty was announced."

"Actually, that makes everything make sense." Genis said, thinking aloud. "I always thought it was weird that we didn't find their corpses when we came back. At the beginning, I thought that they were eaten by the demons of the Ginnungagap, but we never found any indication of them being eaten or dragged away by the demons. This explains it all."

His three partners looked at him with their mouths wide open.

"What! Why are you looking at me like that!"

"Each year, you are more like your sister." Zelos said. "And not in the good way."

"Nevertheless, saving us from macabre and grim details," the red-haired swordsman frowned at Genis, "the pair is still alive. And before you ask: yes! That's why we are here. Alice killed the king and managed to save Decus just in time. So the princess decided to send Sheena to murder the regicide and her mate. We were supposed to be on a secret mission but Miss Ninja of the Year here," he pointed at Sheena with his thumb, "was unable to keep it a secret."

"You wanted to keep this in secret from me? I thought we were friends!" Lloyd complained.

"Do you think you are the right to be complaining about this, bud?"

Lloyd was taken aback. Zelos was right, he did the exact same when the Blood Purge incident happened, and did it again a few days ago, hiding from Genis the problems he was having with the last attacks he had received, a secret whose consequences ended up being paid by Colette.

"_Colette!"_

"Guys we have to hurry!" Lloyd said, entering Palmacosta with his ninja suit on. "We can discuss this another time."

* * *

The group walked towards the town council when crowd surrounding a banner grabbed their attention. Two men and a woman were passing something out something that looked like an announcement in a building near the town council. The three people were dressed in normal clothes, and the only distinctive symbol that related them with each other was a black band on their arms with a black rose drawn inside a white circle.

Lloyd would have usually ignored that banner, but those black roses gave him a bad feeling. He pushed through the crowd and read what was written on the paper.

"_Citizens of Sylvarant, how much longer will we believe their lies? How much longer will we allow our rights to be violated? How much longer will we allow to those murderers to walk freely? It's time to say enough!_

"_People of Sylvarant, our former government leaders keep protecting those who we saw killing our families and friends._

"_First, the self-proclaimed Hero of Sylvarant, Lloyd Irving, murdered our people with a sadistic smile, and what does the governor say? That the Vanguard sent one of their men to kill our families! I was there, you were there, we were there; we saw it with our own eyes. And who do they blame? The Vanguard! The men that fought for our rights, the men that helped us each day, the men who stopped the abuses of Tethe'alla over our country._

"_We all know who is the ones responsible for our pain. They claim to do what's best for the world, but what have they done? They killed thousands of innocents in Palmacosta! They killed those who fought for our rights! Who gave them the right to do that! No one! They call themselves heroes, but they are nothing but murderers._

"_Lloyd Irving and his lap dogs have created a lot of pain in our hearts with their self-proclaimed justice. Who asked them to take justice into their hands and attack the Vanguard? No one! It's time to end these self-proclaimed heroes who dispense justice with the blade of their swords under the excuse of making a better world for everyone! Ask one the thousands of innocents who lose someone beloved if the world is better for them!_

"_If the government does __nothing, then it is time to repay them with the same coin!_

"_IT'S TIME TO SAY ENOUGH!"_

_Join La Resistance. _

Everyone was murmuring about the announcement.

"Do you think it's true?"

"I don't think Lloyd Irving, the same person who saved us from Desians, was the responsible of the Blood Purge."

"That's too easy to say, you didn't lose anyone. I saw him with my own eyes. They are right, it's time to say enough."

"My big brother is from Palmacosta and joined the Vanguard to help us because we needed money. He would have never attacked his own town! I'm sure of that."

"I would join them to kick their asses. But after what they did to the Vanguard… The hell with it. It's impossible to defeat them."

"But we can't let them do as they please!"

Lloyd's blood began to boil when he read the poster and heard the comments. He wasn't the culprit of the blood purge, he never proclaimed himself a hero, much less claim that what he did, he did it in the name of justice. They shouldn't even start spewing the word 'justice'! He only had done what he thought it was the best thing he could do for everyone. But that wasn't the reason why he was really angry, the reason was that those bastards were using the pain the people felt to use them in their own benefit. He couldn't stand cold manipulators like themo. It was above his self-control.

"Let's go in, Lloyd." Sheena said, taking the swordsman by the shoulder. "Don't let this get you. We have more important things to care about, remember?"

Those words seemed to bring the brown-haired man back in his sense. Sheena was right, Colette was in danger and he couldn't let himself get distracted because of some fanatics.

The four entered the town council with the intention of finding Raine. What they didn't expect was their search to end so fast. The white-haired half-elf was with Clara Dorr, a guy dressed in black with a red shirt and two familiar teens.

"Marta! Emil!" Sheena exclaimed happily.

All but the man in black looked to see who had called their attention. Marta was the first one who ran towards them and hugged Sheena.

"Sheena! Zelos! Genis! I have missed you all so much."

"I'm glad to see you too, Marta." The ninja said, welcoming her.

"Hey little buddy! How have you been?" Zelos said, embracing Emil by the shoulder and whispered in his ear. "You have to catch me up with your relationship with Marta! And don't omit any details."

Emil blushed madly at his comment. He understood what Zelos was hinting at with his wink and that really embarrassed him. For the goddess Martel, he didn't know at which point his relationship with the brunette was exactly! He had only kissed her once and he wasn't sure if it was a friendly kiss or a '_I want to be more than a friend to you'_ kiss.

Sheena dragged the pervert chosen away by the ear.

"Leave them alone. Don't put him under pressure. Not everyone in this word is like you." She said, annoyed, as she pulled the chosen away while he moaned and begged for Sheena to release his precious ear.

Lloyd took off the mask that covered his face. Raine was the first one who recognized him.

"Lloyd? Why you are all here?"

The name of the Hero of Regeneration took Dias attention, who, now more interested in the new arrivals, looked at the group.

"No, we are not all here." Lloyd answered, unable to hide the worry in his voice. "That's why we have come. Colette is not with us."

"Did something happen to her?" The white-haired professor asked, not really knowing what to expect.

"I… We don't know where she is. I went to find her, but all I found was the basket I made for her six years ago, in the hands of a crazy woman dressed like a maid who didn't stop calling herself death."

Lloyd sat over a chair, leaning over and covering his head with his hands and tightening his grip on his hair with his fingers.

"If I had warned her, none of this would have happened. Now those guys have her and who knows what they will do to her."

"I see."Raine said with a serious voice.

"'I see'? How can you say something like that!" Marta questioned the heartless answer of the half-elf.

The brunette quickly ran to her worried friend and stroked his back as she whispered some supporting words to him.

"Don't get me wrong Marta, if anyone has touched a single hair of my beloved student, I will make them know the true meaning of the word pain." Raine warned with a spine-chilling voice. "But becoming enraged won't help us at all."

"I'm sorry to interrupt this scene, but what was the name of that woman? It wouldn't be Beatrix, perchance?" Dias inquired.

"Yeah, how do you know that?"

Dias sighed mentally. Beatrice couldn't have attacked Lloyd at a worse moment. While it was true that a lot of humans and half-elves of Sylvarant were quite mad at Lloyd, that didn't apply to the Chosen of Regeneration. If the people began to think that _La Resistance_ had done it, they will lose most of the support of the humans and even if half-elves still supported them they barely were twenty percent of Sylvatant's population.

"My name is Andrew Dias and I'm the one in charge of the current situation with La Resistance."

"Do you know about that woman?"

Dias pondered his options and came to the conclusion that the best thing he could do was give to him some meaningless information, enough to win his trust be but not enough to be helpful with his current situation.

"All I know is that she is a half-elf and that she is the leader of a recent disorganized group called La Resistance. As a teen, she lost her parents at the hands of some humans and joined the Desians." The musician explained, walking around.

"But if you don't mind, we were discussing some important stuff with Marta and Emil. So can we continue?"

"Our issues can wait." Emil answered, indignant. "Colette's whereabouts are much more important than our problems with _La Resistance_."

"Wait a minute…" Genis said talking for the first time since he entered in the town hall. "Those guys in La Resistance are giving problems to you too?"

Emil nodded. "Yeah. The other day we were talking with Dias and updating him about all that happened with the Vanguard. You know, who was in command and what Brute, Richter, Decus and Alice did during they were part of the Vanguard. We also explained to him how Decus used Solum's Core in order to execute the Blood Purge using Lloyd as their scapegoat. And when we had just left his house two armed people who wore back bands with a black rose attacked us. We didn't have our weapons with us. If Dias hadn't showed up at just the right moment, things could have ended badly for us."

It wasn't unnoticed by Lloyd's eyes how Marta grabbed the blonde next to her tightly by the hand as he explained what had happened to them. It looked like he and Colette weren't the only ones having problems.

"Thanks for helping my friends." Lloyd thanked sincerely.

"I was just doing my job."

"What did they want?" The brown-haired swordsman asked.

"Lloyd! We're fine. You don't need to worry about us. Colette is much more important right now." Marta said, genuinely concerned.

"I'm worried about Colette too, but there is a high possibility that the same guys who are behind your attacks are also the same people who kidnapped Colette. I have no clue where she is, so maybe by helping you we might find out what has happened to her. We are all in the same boat."

Raine smiled proudly when she heard the swordsman's reasoning. It looked like he had really matured a little during all this time after all.

"Shall we continue then?" The half-elf asked Dias rhetorically, who seemed lost in his own thoughts.

"It would be best," The musician said, organizing his notes. "Well, since Emil has already updated you about yesterday's events, I will continue where I was before you came. The two people who I captured where named…" Dias passed through his notes looking for the information, "Here they are: Alexander Green and Pamela White; Alexander was a member of the Vanguard whose right hand was cut off by Decus for groping his superior's butt." He said, finding it hard not to chuckle.

Everyone put on a painful expression, but no one seemed to be surprised. Marta even considered that the guy was lucky to only lose his hand. He must have been a rookie when he did that. No one who knew Alice was stupid enough to try to take advantage of her. Her cute behavior was a deadly trap, and there was no one in the Vanguard who didn't know it.

"And Pamela was the younger sister of a Vanguard member who joined the organization after Palmacosta was attacked. He served in the Vanguard for five months until he was killed by Emil Castagnier. Now, she joined La Resistance seeking vengeance. Like most of the members of the organization, they were related in some way with the Vanguard and also wanted revenge for what Lloyd supposedly did in the Blood Purge."

"I don't understand it." Lloyd said seriously. "How can the same people who were responsible of the Blood Purge blame me for that?"

"If what Emil and Marta told me was right it looks like the activities carried out by the espionage division were kept secret from the rest of the divisions of the Vanguard."

"Wait a moment!" Emil interrupted alarmed. "Do you mean that all the Vanguard members we killed were unaware of the Vanguard's actions in the Blood Purge?"

"Seems logical doesn't it? How could they keep their former members and get more if they revealed that they had killed their families?"

Emil's guilt almost made him throw up when he heard Dias. He had killed men who thought that they were doing the right thing. Guys who wanted to protect their families and friends, and he killed them. He always thought that what he did was justified because he was fighting a bunch of immoral, selfish guys that didn't care about people. But this, this changed everything. And it looked like he wasn't the only one who felt bad, because Genis, Marta and Sheena also shared his expression.

"In fact the reports that Alexia sent to us about the Vanguard's activity reveal that fifteen members of the Vanguard were missing after the Blood Purge."

"Do you think that…" Raine didn't even need to finish her question.

"Yes! I think that someone in the Vanguard killed all the soldiers involved in the Blood Purge but Decus to ensure that no one would ever know what happened that day, not even the rest of the Vanguard soldiers."

Marta's heart stopped. Could her dad have been the one who ordered that? He did a lot of things under the control of Solum's Core, but to order to kill his own men was unimaginable. But if he didn't do it who? Richter? Alice? Decus?

"So the only way to prove Lloyd's innocence would be by making Decus admit that he was the one responsible for the Blood Purge." Sheena deduced, gazing at Dias. "And if we are able to prove Lloyd's innocence, all these attacks against him, Emil, and Marta would end and we might even be able to save Colette peacefully."

What the representative of Mizuho had just said, much to Dias's displeasure, was true. It wasn't hard to convince people that Brute's confession about the Vanguard was a lie obtained through torture. The wounded heart of the Sylvarantis were more than willing to believe anything that would relieve their pain and transform it into rage towards Tethe'alla, but Emil and Marta were right and if they managed to make Decus confess his crimes, all his plans to put an end to the cult of Martel would crash.

"Well, first of all we don't really know if they have kidnapped Colette." He said trying to mislead the ninja.

"Why do you say that? You didn't know she was kidnapped until today." Zelos asked suspiciously.

Since the conversation had begun, he had kept himself outside of it, listening patiently to everyone, and he knew that Dias was hiding something. After all, it's hard to trick to a liar.

"Well, when someone is being questioned under the curse of Infernal Pain, you say anything to make it stop. I'm sure that they would have told me that information in exchange to make my painful sonata end." He explained, smiling calmly.

"You used the dark curse of Infernal Pain to interrogate them!" Genis shouted angrily. "That spell inflicts a pain beyond description! it's so tormenting that it is considered torture! That's inhumane!"

"Oh! Forgive me for using a dark spell that doesn't do anything aside from inflicting pain. Maybe I should have burned them alive with a fire or an electric spell like you did to them. Does that seem more humane to you?" He asked with corrosive sarcasm.

That answer seemed to put the noisy half-elf temporally in his place much to Dias relief.

"Well, as I was saying we don't know if they are the ones who have kidnapped Colette."

"And what do you suggest?" Zelos asked. "Should we stay with our arms crossed and see if it gets solved by itself? Don't get me wrong, I would be the first in supporting that motion but no one takes my sweet angel and leaves calmly."

"Of course not. It looks like our best option would be to force Decus to confess his crimes. That probably would be a hard hit to La Resistance." He answered, smiling.

"Then I guess that we should capture him." Zelos asked provocatively, looking deeply into him.

"Indeed." Dias replied, seemingly unaffected. "Well, that is supposing that Alexia doesn't find them first." He added tauntingly.

Zelos didn't know what he was trying to hide, but he would keep an eye on him from now on.

"Alexia?" Lloyd asked "Who is she?"

Raine and Dias updated Lloyd about what had happened with the King of Tethe'alla and who Alexia was. While they were busy with the details, Marta left to the next room. The troubled gaze she had wasn't unnoticed by Emil, who stood up and followed her.

"Is there something wrong Marta?"

"It's just that I don't feel right about this. Chasing Decus and Alice now. I don't think that they will come with us peacefully, we will have to force them. I don't feel right with the idea."

Emil knew what she meant. Since they defeated the duo in the entrails of the Ginnungagap she had felt sympathy for the blonde-haired half-elf and her lover.

"I know I shouldn't feel this way." The brunette continued. "But a part of me was happy when I knew that they escaped from Meltokio. And now we are going after them? They haven't done anything evil. They are provably trying to live their lives. Maybe Alice has made up her mind and is with Decus now, trying to live her life with the person she loves without harming anyone else. She looked completely shattered when she thought he died."

It took her a lot of effort to say that without crying. The image of Alice bleeding out while crawling over the ground as tried to rest as close as she could to Decus wasn't an image easy to forget, and it was harder when she knew she caused it.

"And all that ranting about power, she seemed paranoid. She looked as if she was afraid of being attacked if she didn't get power because of everything that happened in their childhood. If we chase them down now, we will only prove to her that she was right about the need of power and she might get obsessed again."

Marta looked to the floor in shame.

"We are being selfish." She did a short pause and shook her head. "This isn't right. We are going to go after them for something they haven't done. They aren't the ones attacking us."

"I know what you mean Marta." Emil took her by the shoulders and lowered himself a little to look at the girl's eyes. "I felt the same way and I never wanted to harm them either. But even if you feel sympathy for her because of all the abuses they suffered in the orphanage or because of the hard life that they had, we can't suddenly ignore all their crimes and pretend that they never did them. The reason why we are going after them is because they were involved in the massacre here in Palmacosta."

"I know. But I still don't feel good about it. Doesn't everyone deserve a second chance?"

* * *

**Triet Renegade's base**

"Hey, Colettie!" Alice shouted opening the door of her cell. "It's time to take a shower. I like to have all my pets clean. And that includes you." She said, closing her eyes and smiling sweetly.

Then the golden-eyed half-elf turned on the hose she was carrying with her and bathed the Chosen with cold water.

The frozen shower took the chosen completely off guard, causing her to almost drown. However the worst part wasn't the temperature of the gelid water, no, the worst part was the pressure of the water. It was so intense that she thought that it would make a hole through her skin. The force of the water was such that she was being slammed against the wall. She tried to protect herself with her hands but Alice always aimed where she wasn't protecting herself as if it was some kind of game.

After two minutes of agony, Alice turned off the hose and released it, (the parts where Alice had held it where covered with frost).

"Here are your clothes and a new item for you." She said, tossing to Colette her clothes and a dog chain. "When I come back I want you to have put on everything or else…" She smiled sadistically. "Well, I guess you already know what will happen."

And she left the cell, closing it behind her and leaving the Chosen coughing and shaking as she tried to recover from the bath.

Alice knew that she could have put the chain on herself, but she preferred to let Colettie to do it. In that way, Colettie would the one who assumes her position as her pet and she would be hers.

Alice chuckled like a little girl. She couldn't wait to see her pathetic gaze accepting her position as what she was.

"_And__, thinking about pathetic people, I must go to see if Decus has cleaned the rest of my pets."_ She thought, tapping her lower lip.

She went on her way to where she had left her pets when she suddenly smelled a familiar smell so intense that it would make almost anyone faint. She then began to run, thinking the worst. When she entered the hall, her suspicions were confirmed. Decus was cleaning Porthos -who was whimpering- with a gel that was leaving a pinkish foam. He was cleaning her pets with pet gel he bought via mail order from that stupid company.

"What are you doing!" Alice shouted, incensed, suddenly opening the door.

Her heart began to beat faster and she blushed like a teenager when she watched Decus. He was cleaning her pets dressed only in his pants! He had nothing covering his torso. He was there, bathing her pets, showing his muscles, his wet and shiny toned muscles. Not too big but well-marked, just as she liked.

"_What the hell am I thinking!"_

"What are you doing half naked! Exhibitionist!" She pointed at him accusatively.

"Oh? Hey Alice!" Decus said, noticing that his beloved was with him now. "I took of my shoes and shirt so I didn't get them wet. Do you like what you see?" He asked making one of his _'sensual'_ dance-like movements (or at least what he understood for sensual).

"You are disgusting." She shouted, walking backwards without taking her eyes off his body as she left. "I will leave now to do some stuff but when I'm back I want to see my pets clean you with a shirt on so I don't have to watch that poor excuse of body of yours. Did you get it? So- hmm… Bye!"

And with those words she left the room running.

Decus's smile faded and he fell on his kneel. Maybe she was right, that work-out machine he bought on mail order from Lezareno's company was a total scum. The pamphlet clearly said that it wouldn't only make him invincible, but also an imam to the women.

"If I ever have the chance, I'm going to sue whoever owns that company!" He said as he kept washing Porthos.

* * *

**Lezareno's Company, President's of the Company office.**

Regal was signing some papers when he suddenly shakes.

"Are you ok President?" His secretary asks.

"Yeah, yeah. It was just a chill. Give me those documents."

(...)/(...)/(...)

* * *

(...)/(...)/(...)

_**Words:**_

_*Mein lieber schatz:_ My dear treasure/ My darling.

**Well, I hope that you**** all liked this chapter I will try to update sooner the next one, now that I have recovered my beta reader it shouldn't be a problem. And as always if you want to tell me anything feel free to press the review button. Until next time.**


	13. Revelations

**AUTHOR NOTES: Hi all, I'm sorry for the delay of this chapter, even if I finished it about 5 weeks ago I had some problems in the final development process that didn't let me update sooner. On the good news I'm almost done with the next chapter so if I everything works appropriately I should be able to update it soon.**

**Anonymous reviews:**

_**-Strum and drang:**_** -(SPOILER ALERT)- Presea will make her appearance after the seal of wind is sealed, which by the way will be the second one being sealed. Expect her permanent appearance along with Regal in four chapters or so.**

**EPISODE 2: THE JOURNEY OF DEGENERATION.**

**Chapter 13: Revelations.**

* * *

**Tower of Mana.**

Alice landed in front of the Tower of Mana with Aramis. Beside her were Decus, holding his Iron Maiden, and Colette, the Chosen of Regeneration.

Decus had to crane his neck to see the length of the great tower. He had seen it many times, but never this close, and it was without a doubt an impressive structure. The walls were white as ivory, and it climbed so high that it was the envy of the mountain range. Decus couldn't help wondering who could have possibily built it - or how.

But nothing could compare to what they found inside. The only structure was a spiral staircase made from the purest white marble, rising up as far as the eye could see, and most likely higher. Light entered only through stained glass windows depicting mythological events in a myriad of colors. One window showed angels at war with ordinary people; another held an image of a great tree, branches and roots disappearing off the edges. The strangest one though, showed what appeared to be a dragon fighting with a squirrel.

Decus couldn't help being amused.

"A dragon verses a squirrel?" Decus didn't try to hide his laughter. "I guess someone smoked a little too much elf grass when he came up with that."

"Professor Raine told us about it in mythology class." Collete pointed at the window. "It represents the fight between Nidhogg and Ratatosk."

For some reason, just the simple mention of Ratatosk made Alice's stomach twist. Though she was too stubborn to admit (even to herself) that the damage that Emil did to Decus at the Ginnungagap affected her in anyway, the fact remained that simply hearing the Summon Spirit's name made her feel sick.

"I'll go first." Alice increased her speed, gaining the foot of the stairs and climbing upwards, leaving Decus and the Chosen behind her. She could not afford to show anything that could be interpreted as weakness. "Keep your eyes on Bimbolette, Decus."

"As you command, my sweetheart!" Decus placed a fist over his heart before turning to look at Colette. "Well, you heard her. Don't try to escape Colette, or I'll be forced to cut off your legs."

Colette gulped, unable to disguise her fear. Having seen the lengths to which Decus would go to please Alice, she couldn't tell if he was joking - or if he really meant to hurt her.

"Oh, c'mon! Don't be afraid, I wouldn't _really_ cut your legs off." Decus gave her shoulder a friendly shake. "Cutting off your feet would be enough. Going for the legs would just be inhumane!"

Colette smiled back, trying to humor him. The task was made difficult by her trembling lips. Decus gave her a thumbs-up to make her smile. "See? If you don't run away, everything will be fine. Let's catch up with Alice, shall we?" And he began making his way up the staircase, Colette following close behind.

After several minutes of uncomfortable silence for unknown causes –at least for Decus- he tried to ease the tension by starting a conversation.

"Do you know anything else about these pictures?" Decus deliberately kept his voice casual and light. "I'd like to know more about them."

"You would?" Colette was curious. He hadn't seemed like the kind of guy interested in gathering knowledge. _But I guess I shouldn't judge a book by its cover,_ she thought.

"Of course! I want to show Alice that I'm also a smart guy. It's not like I feel threatened by Nickolay or anything, but I want to show her that I'm not _just_ super hot and awesome - I'm also really intelligent!"

Colette rolled her eyes. She should have known better. After all, there were some books that could be judged by their covers: 'Decus' diary' being one of them along with other great similar titles like: 'Studying with Lloyd' or 'A day in the kitchen with Raine'.

"I guess I could tell you the story. Let me see if I can remember how to begin..." Her voice descended into thoughtful mutters as she struggled with the memory. "Oh, yeah, I remember now!"

She pointed to a window with an image of two naked women embracing one another on a green field and began in a clear voice.

"When the world was created, two living being were born with it: Martel and Hel. The sisters lived with one another for ages, but Martel decided that the world was too empty. And so she took the wind, and created animals to fill the empty spaces and she spent her time watching over them and caring for them.

After some years, she decided to create creatures like her sister and herself, who would be able to think and love. And so she took the water and created the elves, a wise and peaceful race that lived in harmony with the nature. She was so pleased with the success of her creations that she decided to take the ground and create the dwarves and gnomelettes, two power and peaceful races that would live under the mountains. To ensure a peaceful life for all her creations in the world, she used her own mana to create Ratotosk, the Lord of the Monsters. But Hel, jealous of Martel's creations, decided to create her own creature."

Next, Colette directed Decus' attention to a window depicting a woman dressed in black, surrounded by symbols representing wind, water, and earth.

"Hel told her sister that she would create the superior creature by using all three elements. Her creation would be wild like animals, as wise as the elves, as strong as the dwarves, and would live longer then all of them. She ignored Martel's warnings and mixed the elements. The result was a mass of mud, but using her power, she gave life to it and called the result of her experiment 'human.' But the humans were not wild like animals, and they were cowardly and weak, unlike the dwarves. And they were not wise like the elves: they killed each other over trivial reasons and could not come to peace with one another. She soon began to hate her own creations."

The next window showed humans at war with each other. It was a familiar image.

"That fits humans," Alice commented from a distance.

"Hel was ashamed of her creatures, and used fire to create the demons, a race of mindless creatures whose only purpose was to destroy life in flames. To avoid the destruction of the other races, Hel used her power to give life to Nidhogg, a being capable of thought and speech that would control the demons. Hel then told Nidhogg to use the demons to destroy all human life. Martel tried to stop her sister, but once again, Hel didn't listen and ordered the extermination of the human race."

Decus looked a little disgusted at a window where humans were being killed by monsters commanded by a black dragon.

"Martel, moved by compassion and pity, couldn't bear to keep watching the massacre. She commanded Ratatosk to protect the human race. Taking that as an offence, Hel warned her sister that if she didn't let her destroy her creation, she would destroy life all over the world. Martel wept, and told her sister that she couldn't allow her to do this. Furious at this rejection, Hel ordered Nidhogg to kill anyone who opposed them."

"When the elves learned of this, they had to decide what would be the better choice. Some thought that the wisest option was to follow the wishes of their creator and protect the humans, since every being has a right to live. Others though that it was better to side with the demons and help destroy the humans, since they were aggressive and war-like creatures, which rendered them unworthy to live. In the end they split into two sides: one that sided with Ratatosk, and another that was led by a powerful wizard named Nebilim that joined Nidhogg. Meanwhile, the dwarves had opted to stay out of the conflict and took a neutral position: they would kill the humans, but they wouldn't help them either. And that's how the war began."

Colette pointed now to a glass with the two sides of the war on a battle field.

"The war lasted years, until Nidhogg and Ratatosk fought against each other in single combat. In the end, Nidhogg defeated Ratatosk. Nidhogg and his forced celebrated their victory, until the unbelievable happened: a human, armed with nothing more than a simple sword and shield, attacked Nidhogg. The dragon easily killed the lone man, and laughed at his impudence. But more and more humans began surging against the Demon Lord. Ratatosk and the elves were stunned at how the humans kept attacking the dragon, no matter what. It was obviously a foolish decision: humans were weak, and easily defeated. What was the point of attacking if they kept dying? What pushed them?"

"After witnessing their courage, Ratatosk and the elves were filled with a new power. It didn't come from their minds or bodies, but their hearts. And armed with that new power, the elves, commanded by Ratatosk, joined the humans' assault and completely overwhelmed Nidhogg and his army. Hel couldn't believe it."

"Martel forgave her sister but Hel didn't accept it. Ashamed and full or resentment, she created a portal to a different dimension in the depths of the world, in the Ginnungagap, and named after herself. Nidhogg and the remaining demons departed with her, and the elves who sided with Nidhogg were by banished by the victors of the war."

"The myth has a moral. In the end it wasn't the wisdom of the elves, the power of Ratatosk, or the courage of the humans what defeated Nidhogg, but a combination of the three. If you are brave but powerless you can't do anything. If you are powerful but unwise you can't use your power effectively. And if you are wise but cowardly, you won't be brave enough to use your wisdom. Having the strength of all three qualities enables you to do anything."

Colette blushed after hearing herself saying that.

"Well, that was the moral that Professor Raine taught us."

"That story is cool." Decus smiled, not really seeming to have listened the full story. "I bet that Nickolay doesn't know it. I can already see Alice being impressed by my historical knowledge. She will embrace me and say-" Decus effected an effeminate voice. ""Oh Decus, you are so strong and smart! I'm so lucky to have someone like you to love me! I love you Decus, please, marry me!"

Colette looked away in embarrassment as Decus continued to daydream of his perfect life with Alice.

Colette looked embarrassed as Decus began daydreaming of his perfect life with Alice.

"DUMBO!" Alice shouted some floors above them. "NICKOLAY SAID THAT HE WOULD WAIT FOR US AT THE SUMMONING SEAL. SO STOP DAYDREAMING AND HURRY UP!"

"MY APOLOGIES MY DEAR! I DIDN'T KNOW THAT YOU MISSED MY COMPANY SO MUCH! I WILL TRY TO REACH THE TOP AS SOON AS I CAN, BUT THE IRON MAIDEN IS A LITTLE TOO HEAVY!"

"YOU MORON! WHEN DID I SAY THAT I MISSED YOU?YOU'RE THE ONE WHO CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT ME, NOT VICE VERSA! WHY WOULD I CARE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS TO A HUMAN LIKE YOU? THE WORLD WOULD BE BETTER OFF WITHOUT YOUR DESPICABLE SPECIES!"

Decus' smile disappeared between Alice's words of contempt. He knew how right she was about humans, and the story that Colette had told him only proved her point. Of course, he would never do something to harm the one who had saved his life, and whom he loved; but he was human and he couldn't blame Alice for not trusting him.

If he only could prove to her that he was different from all of them. Sometimes he wished he had being born as a half-elf too, so that Alice would trust him and maybe have a peaceful life together.

"Are you alright, Decus?"

Colette didn't know why she felt pity for someone like Decus. After all he had done, she was probably supposed to hate him. But she couldn't help herself, and sorrow at the sight of his troubled eyes.

Decus smiled.

"What are youtalking about? I'm perfectly fine!"

She knew that kind of smile. It was the one Zelos used when he felt troubled and didn't want to worry anyone; it was the one she had used to hide the truth of her degradation to Lloyd during the Journey of Regeneration. That smile told Colette more than anything Decus could have ever told her.

"Why do you let her to treat you like that?"

"I already told you in Hima didn't I?"

"Yeah, but…how do you stand it?"

"Well…" His voice became deep and serious. "She has the right to call me all that, and do whatever she wants with me. I'm grateful that she's letting me stay by her side."

Colette stopped walking for a moment. Decus always seemed to have healthy self-esteem; she hadn't expected something like _that_.

"Why would you say that?"

Decus sighed as he began to remember the painful things.

* * *

_When I was in the orphanage, I wasn't the most popular boy. I wasn't cute, smart, funny or strong. I guess I was a loser. And of course that wasn't unnoticed by the rest of the boys and girls who quickly started bullying me: they marginalized me, insulted me, called me names, and if I ever tried talking back, I just got beaten up. Sometimes they didn't even need an excuse, they would just surround me and shove me to the ground and not let me up, or something like that._

_I got pretty tired of being alone. I would have done anything to redirect the bullying on to anyone else and join the abuses. I would have done anything to be accepted._

_And then, one day, a new girl arrived to the orphanage._

_Her hair was pale blonde and her eyes were golden, like honey. She was covered in dirt, and her clothes stained with blood, and you didn't have to be a genius to notice how sad she looked. That didn't surprise me though; it wasn't like the orphanage was a sea-side resort. We were all there for the same reason._

_But the sympathy I felt for the little girl didn't last long. I knew it was only a matter of time before she sided with the stronger kids and bullied me too. She would become just like them. _

_I can still remember what the orphanage owner said the day she arrived._

"_A half-elf! How can you bring me one of those dirty Desians to this place! I can't take care of her! Once she grows up, she'll become one of them, like all the half-elves do! You should have taken her to the forest to let her be devoured by monsters!"_

_At that she started crying, but the owner wouldn't retract his words. I knew I ought to feel sorry for her, but I knew that she was from the same race that killed my father and imprisoned my mother. As soon as I remembered that my blood began to boil and any positive feelings I had were replaced with hatred. I remember smiling when I saw the director dragging her by the hair into the building while she cried in pain._

_The rest of day wasn't different from the others. I usually kept myself to one side, trying to not show my face to the bullies and not give them an excuse to do anything to me. But this time I went to spy on the new girl and see what she was doing. I didn't trust half-elves. As far as I knew she could be making signals to other Desians to make them come to Hima. _

_All I found though was a girl drawing animals in the sand with a stick. She had to use her torn sleeve to wipe the tears off her face._

_That's what I saw at first, anyway. My tormenters appeared as well. Some days, I wonder if they followed me there._

"_Hey greasy hair, what are you looking at!" The son of the orphanage's director. He was always threatening me._

"_Nothing I was…"_

_But then I saw my chance to end the bullying and being finally accepted. Why should I protect a half-elf? It was because of people like her that I was in that hellish orphanage in the first place. I could tell them what that girl really was, and they would attack her instead of me. Most of the kids were orphans because they lost their parents at the hands of the Desians. So I took my chance._

"_The new girl is a half-elf!"_

"_What are you saying?" The director's son picked me up by the collar. It made it so hard to breathe._

"_The new girl! The blonde. She's a Desian," I replied._

"_What the fuck! Are you serious?"_

_He released me and, followed by the rest of the kids, went to the new girl. Without a word, he grabbed her by the arm and pulled aside her hair aside to see her ears. The girl tried to push him away and begged him to release her and not look her ears; it was almost like she knew what would happen if they saw them. But her efforts were in vain; he was too strong for her and finally managed to get a close look. The girl began to cry and begged him to not say anything but he just ignored her, and shouted that the girl was a half-breed.__ In a matter of seconds all the kids surrounded her like a bunch of crows over a pile of carrion, and I was no exception._

"_Hey, Desian! Did someone kill your parents?" The girl pouted but didn't reply. The fear or maybe the sadness didn't let her._

"_Well, I'm glad that someone killed you parents. Those Desians deserved to die, and your species is disgusting so you should die too!"_

_The girl just started crying again._

"_Leave me alone! Leave me alone! I haven't done anything! Please, leave me alone!"_

"_Oh…" His face twisted up in a mocking sneer. "Look at the Desian, crying because her parents died. Well deal with it, they're dead and they won't come back! They're dead!"_

"_Mom, Da-a-a-ad!" She wouldn't stop wailing for her parents._

_They all began to laugh at the girl's suffering, and I joined them. I would like to say that I did it to be part of the group but part of me was enjoying the suffering of that girl. But I didn't stop there, I insulted and spitted on her just like the rest - I was determined to achieve my goal and nothing would stop me._

_When we finished with her, we left her alone so she could enjoy her own sorrow._

_As we left, the orphanage owner gave me an approving nod and those who bullied me began to treat me nicely. I had done it, I was one of them. I was finally happy, the half-elf got what she deserved, and I wasn't going to be bullied anymore. I thought that things would be different._

_I was too naive to think that, people didn't change that easily. What soon comes, soon leaves. In less than two weeks I was an outcast again. What I had done was in vain. The only thing that had changed was that now they had two people to bully: a seven year old half-elf and a thirteen year old fool._

_There was only one place to go. I went to the only other person who was as pathetic as me, the only person who would accept me. The blonde half-elf._

_When I finally found her she was outside Hima near the cliff, cutting petals off flowers. It was a forbidden place for all the kids, but then again no one would care if she fell._

"_Hmmm… ehhhh. Hi!" I didn't know what else to say. I knew that with some luck she might have not seen me in the crowd when we attacked her._

_She let out a shriek of surprise when she noticed me. "What- what do you want?" The fear in her voice was easily recognizable._

"_Nothing, nothing. I'm Decus I-I just wanted to sit here," I replied, trying to sound casually._

"_OK. I'll leave, but please don't hurt me." She begged frightened__._

"_No, no! You don't need to leave, you can stay here. Well, if you want." I desperately wished that she stay with me. I didn't want to be alone any longer._

_The girl looked around her, not really trusting me._

"_I came alone. And I don't want to hurt you," I told her quickly._

_She looked at me one more time._

"_Hmm… fine, I'll stay."_

_She sounded unsure, and I'm sure that she didn't trust me. I guess that the only reason why she took the __risk and stayed was because she was as desperate as I wa__s._

_I spent most of the time just sitting with her, looking at the nothingness; her company was enough at that moment. We spent the next days in the same way; she would go to the top of the mountain and I went with her some time after (part of me felt disgusted for befriending a half-breed and I didn't what anyone to know it) and we would stand there, away from everyone else, looking at the landscape and clouds without saying anything to each other. Until one day she suddenly talked to me._

"_Why you come here with me? You're a human, why aren't you with the rest of the kids?" She wouldn't look up from the dirt as she spoke._

"_They don't like me. I prefer to stay away."_

"_So you're only with me because no one likes you?"_

"_I didn't mean that." And so I lied about why I was with her._

"_Do you think I'm a monster? I disgust you, don't I?"_

"_No, you don't disgust me at all." I had to lie again. I felt repulsed for her mere presence and I would have changed her for anyone else, but I didn't __have__ anyone else._

"_I don't?" She waited a moment and rubbed her harm, and suddenly said in a cheerful voice,__ "Hi! My name is Alice."_

_I smiled back. And that was when I started feeling sorry for her, I was only with her because she was the best I could make of a bad situation. My friendship with her was as fake as my smile._

_Over the next few days we kept going to the top of the mountain. As time went on we became closer to each other. I discovered that I couldn't judge someone just because she was a half-elf. I couldn't blame her for what Desians did to my parents. She wasn't one of them. As I learned to treat her as an individual, I discovered that she was a sweet kind girl and after some time we became friends. For the first time since I was__ in the orphanage I felt that I had someone._

_However a friendship between a human and a half-elf wasn't something that got overlooked in the wider world, much less in an orphanage were all the kids had lost__ their parents in the hands of Desians._

_One day while we were in our usual place, Brand, the orphanage owner's son, came to us with his brothers and friends. When I saw them, I knew that something terrible was going to happen: they never came with friendly intentions._

"_You traitor! I see that the rumors were right." Brand pointed at me. "What do you think you're doing! Do you think befriending that dirty half-elf scumbag will keep you safe when Desians come? I always knew that you were a coward but I never expected you to fall that low. Siding with the Desians…you're despicable."_

_If he had told me that three weeks ago I would have agreed with him, but now I knew that he was wrong. __I should have told him to stop calling her 'Desian,' and that her name was Alice. I should have told him that being friends with a someone different doesn't make you a traitor. I should have told him that he couldn't judge Alice for the crimes of others and I should have told him that she was my friend and that I didn't regret that. But he was right in one respect: I was a despicable coward._

"_This half-elf?" I scoffed. "She isn't my friend. Why would I befriend a disgusting half-elf?"_

"_De-Decus?" Alice was on the verge of tears, not really believing my words._

_I felt disgusted with myself for what I was doing. I was repulsive but I didn't want them to beat me because of someone else. My life was already troublesome enough without getting hurt because of someone else._

"_Look at her, she's about to cry," I mocked trying to get the approval of the strongest sid__e._

"_Why?" Alice asked mourning looking at me with an incredulous glaze. "WHY!"_

"_Oh, c'mon do you really believe all that stuff I said! No__ one would ever befriend a half-elf."_

_Alice pulled her hair and began to scratch at her skull as a maniac__._

"_No, no, no, no, no, no…I'm a monster, I'm a monster…" She said to herself._

_Her breath came faster and stifled and then she suddenly screamed aloud with all her might and when she couldn't scream more she just felt to the ground and began to cry._

_I knew some thingbroke inside her, and I was the cause of it._

_Brand and the rest of the crowd were so amazed with what I had done to the girl that they let me leave the place in pace._

"_Well said Decus!"Brand cheered. "I'm glad to see that I was wrong with you."_

_As I left I turned backwards to look the person whose trust I had betrayed. Everyone began to insult her but she didn't bother to reply. She didn't cower when they spat on her and she didn't even try to defend herself when Brand dragged her behind him by her hair. It was as if she thought she deserved all that, as if she thought that there was no reason to defend herself. It looked as if she had lost all her will to live._

_I don't know what happened to me. I had never had the courage to defend myself but for the first time in my life I decided to do something different. I closed my hand into a fist, took Brand by the shoulder and turned him, and after looking his smiling face for a second I punched him with all my strength and threw him down._

"_LEAVE HER ALONE! SHE'S MY FRIEND!" I threatened, tears in my eyes._

"_You…" He grunted and then let his head fall back. He didn't get up again._

_And before I could notice it all the kids rushed me. I tried to defend myself but they outnumbered me and finally took me down. They punched and kicked me and those who didn't have room to help cheered and encouraged the ones that were beating me up. Once they were satisfied they dropped what was left of me to the ground and started to leave._

_I had never felt so much pain in all my life, there wasn't one single point of my body that didn't hurt. I was bleeding and some bones might have been broken. I didn't even have the strength to moan._

_It was then when I saw Alice coming close to me. __I didn't have any hope of her forgiving me; Martel knows that I didn't deserve it._

"_I-I- I'm sorry." I managed to say between the coughs._

_Alice didn't say anything. She just put her hands over my chest and closed her eyes; suddenly her hands began to shine with a pure white light. My wounds began to heal and the pain began to remit slowly._

"_Look at her! She __is__ a monster!" One of the kids shouted. A few seconds after that I heard them running away, shouting in fear._

_When she finished I looked at her sad eyes. I didn't know how she healed me, or why._

"_I'm sorry Alice, I didn't mean all what I said. I was afraid and I-"_

_But before I could finish she grabbed the edges of my clothes and began to moan into my chest. I embraced her and tried to comfort her, I wanted her to know that she had me. I knew there was nothing I could say or do anything amend all the damage I did to her, but I could do something to change the future._

* * *

Colette stood quietly as he finished his story and dried a lonely tear that rolled down her cheek.

"I'm really ashamed of the person I was," Decus muttered. "And I don't even want to think in what kind of person I would have become if I hadn't met Alice. Just sharing their species disgusts me."

"But you're not that person anymore. Why do you let her treat you like that?" Colette asked.

"Treat me like what?" Decus inquired, confused by her question.

"You know…. She's always…" Colette tried to find a less offensive word in her vocabulary. "Underestimating you."

"Well, I guess I just got used to it. She didn't insult me when we were younger, but she slowly began to do it and slowly I got used to it. Besides, I never cared about what she said about me; one of the things I learned was that I can't judge people for what they say but for what they do. And she is an angel," he explained, closing his eyes for a moment.

Colette looked incredulously at his explanation. Even in the moments he made sense he couldn't take off his pink colored glasses about Alice.

But she was beginning to understand them. Of course, that didn't change what she thought about them, and it didn't excuse them for all crimes they had commit, but it explained a lot.

Back in Palmacosta, when they met her before going to the Ginnungagap, Alice explained them that her past had nothing to do with her current actions, and maybe she had believed that she was right. However, it looked like her past had a lot to do with her behavior towards the world and the path she had chosen to achieve her goals.

"Finally!" Alice shouted catching her breath. "We've reached the damn top of this tower!"

Decus ran towards his beloved holding Colette by the hand and releasing it once they reached Alice. It was night already. It had taken them almost two hours to walk to the top of the tower.

"Alice! If you had told me, I could have carried you on wings to the top." He was gesturing comically.

"On wings? The only way I would let you carry me is on your back and while you walk on all fours," she replied arrogantly.

"Well, I'm fine with that too. As long as you are happy, I'm happy."

That reply really annoyed Alice. Not because she wouldn't like to ride him like a horse -that would actually be pretty fun- but because no matter what she said he never seemed to feel insulted or get angry with her. He was always kind and willing with her, it was almost impossible to despise him. And she hated that.

"You're a moron, you don't even know how to identify an insult."

"Indeed. He is a pretty blunt guy." Nickolay commented casually.

"_What!_ How did you come here? You were still in Triet when we left and I didn't see you walk your way to the top!"

"I have come here flying in a rehiard. Why would I walk to reach the top if I can fly?" He looked confused. "By the way, didn't you come here in a flying monster?"

"Oh, you mean Aramis." Decus began to explain. "Yeah we took-"

"Shut up! He isn't talking to you!"

"You are right my dear. I'm deeply sorry for my meddling." He bowed in apology.

Alice turned away with a huff. "We took Aramis when we left the base but he was sick so I had to banish him and summon other monster instead. One that couldn't fly!" She added quickly.

"Oh my. You had to walk all the way up here when you could have just flown." Nickolay said chuckling.

Decus didn't waste a second and opened his Iron-Maiden to take out his sword. No one laughed at Alice, especially in front of him, but when he grabbed the handle Alice raised her hand. He released the hilt.

Nothing would have been more pleasing for Alice than watching Decus cut Nickolay in a half –well, except maybe to do it herself- but she still needed him in one piece.

"You should watch your mouth Nickolay. I might not be fast enough to stop him the next time." She gave him a kind smile to make her point.

"I have collected enough data about him, I highly doubt that he can take me by surprise." Nickolay explained calmly ignoring Alice's threat.

Alice put a grimace of displeasure.

Colette looked at them both. It looked like there was nothing more than a pact of mutual tolerance between them.

"Well, let's do what we came here to for," Alice declared, turning back to the seal.

The girl took Colette by the chain leash, carried her to the shiny seal, and pushed her in front of it.

"Now why don't you be a nice girl and close the seal!" Alice commanded sweetly pointing at it with her whip.

Colette knew it was a bad idea, and even if she ended being struck, she had to try and discourage her. No one knew what could happen if she closed the seal, but it couldn't be something good.

"Alice please, think about it for a second. We don't know the possible consequences, something terrible might happen!"

Alice whipped Coletteover the face with all her might, sending Chosen to the floor.

"I know the consequences! I will become more powerful! I don't care if this world is destroyed in the process! As long as I get what I want this world and all the living beings that live on it can burn in hell." Alice kept her voice cold. "But if you don't want to do it maybe I should send Decus to the closest town." Alice's voice recovered its usual childish tone. "Do you want me to do that?"

Colette caressed her pained cheek and stood up.

"_I'm sorry," _she thought as a tear rolled down over her cheek.

Colette closed her hands together over her chest and began to sing a song in the angelic language. Feathers of light began to fall all over the place illuminating the tower as if they were fireflies.

Decus looked around him with his mouth open, and tried to take one of them. But it disappeared at the contact of his hand.

As the Chosen sang, the runic symbols around the seal began to turn, slowly making smaller and smaller circles until there was nothing left but the angelic symbol of light in the center that disappeared with the final words of the tune.

"Perfect!" Alice exclaimed happily. "I guess that you are not as useless as I thought."

Colette looked ashamed to the floor. What kind of Chosen was she, that she had closed one of the seals that had taken so much to open years ago?

"Ooooh, are you sad Coletty?" Alice asked in a faked worried voice. "I guess you have reason to, after all you have betrayed the world that you swore to protect. Oh my, you are nothing but a failure," she said laughing at the end.

She had begun to enjoy her psychological torture when the unexpected happened. The seal brightened with more force than ever, lifting a thunderous pillar of light din that opened the clouds above them. The energy that the pillar released was pushing all of them backwards and the light of the core was so intense that everyone had to cover their eyes to keep from going blind.

"WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE!" Alice cried.

Suddenly the pillar of light vanished as fast as it had appeared.

"She has done nothing," a calm feminine voice announced. "I did."

Everyone looked towards the seal. Floating over it was a woman dressed in a green tunic and a staff, sitting over a floating crescent moon.

"I am Luna."

Suddenly a meteor in flames impacted forcefully aside the green haired summon spirit. The fire began to lift and take the form of a two-headed bird as if it were alive. When the embodiment was complete the bicephalous bird shook the flames out as if it were water and crowed as an eagle.

"And he is Aska." Luna claimed pointing to her partner. "Together we are the summon spirits of Light and we have come to protect the pact with our summoner and stop you from closing the seal."

Decus took out his sword, ready to the fight. "I thought it was too easy."

"If you dispose of the weapons and leave peacefully…"

Before she could end, Alice cut her off.

"Blah, blah, blah…" She mocked putting her hands over her waist. "We haven't come with peaceful intentions, so shut up and get ready to die." She pointed menacingly at summon spirit with her toy rapier.

* * *

**Author note: Just in case you don't know the Hima reference that Decus does when he talks with Colette is a reference to Decus&Alice side quest in the game where Decus talks about their past together in the orphanage to the party. However this probably isn't the way they really met in the orphanage, their official met is developed in their official novel: "Never ending thoughts" (in japanese), which I don't have.**

**Anyway, why did I choose to make Decus to be a coward jerk when he was a child? Well, I thought that given his situation it was the most realistic setting, I didn't want him to be someone who accepted half-elves since the first moment.**

**I hope that the wait was worth it, I will try to be faster the next time. Reviews and criticism will be highly appreciated. Until the next time.**


	14. The Seal of Light

**AUTHOR NOTES: Looks like I was able to update sooner this time. Well I have to tell you all that my next chapter will probably have between 3,000 and 4,000 words, the college has begun again and if I want to be able to update it each month I will have to lower the content.**

**Anonymous reviews:**

_**-Strum and drang: **_**I'm glad that you liked Decus's past, I thought that it would make more sense in that way. And as for Alice summoning the monsters that protected the seals in the first game I have to say that I like the idea but it would be troublesome in more than one way. First of all Alice would have too much pets and I prefer her to have a few with more leadership rather than a lot with a few leadership; secondly Alice can't control monsters by herself, she is not a summoner like Sheena, she just brainwashes normal monsters to tame them. Anyway I appreciate your contribution.**

* * *

**EPISODE 2: THE JOURNEY OF DEGENERATION.**

**Chapter 14: The seal of light.**

**Tower of Mana, Seal of Light.**

Alice had thought that a fight against a Summon Spirit and her pet in a three-versus-two match wouldn't be a problem. However, Nickolay refused to fight since the first moment, considering fighting too civilized for a brilliant scientist like himself._"The world can't risk losing my great mind,"_he had said to justify his decision. Needless to say, Alice was annoyed to no end.

Meanwhile, Luna was proving to be a real irritation. The Summon Spirit had great control over the light magic and effortlessly cast spells that kept Alice in a defensive stance, forcing her to use magic to protect herself instead of attacking. To make it worst, Luna was completely out of Alice's reach as she sat on her crescent moon.

"You should have taken the chance I gave you." The spirit's gaze was indifferent as she extended her hand, throwing tens of lighting arrows at Alice who barely had time to lift an ice wall to shield herself from the attack. "I will warn you one last time: release the Chosen, leave this place, and we will give you your life."

"Give me my life? Ha!" Alice kept reinforcing the ice wall against the severe damage inflicted by the light spell, barely keeping enough concentration to speak. "When I'm done with you, you will be the one begging for mercy! And I won't give it to you."

The blonde half-elf smashed her own ice wall to make fragments that shot towards Luna, trying to mutilate the Summon Spirit. She didn't even bother dodging; she simply extended her arm and opened the palm of her hand and all the frozen shrapnel was reduced in dust against an invisible wall.

"I see." Luna answered condescendingly. "In that case-"

Before the Spirit could end her sentence Alice attacked her with a series of lightning bolts, each of them effortlessly deflected by Luna. In response to her attack the Light spirit stared into Alice's eyes and released a flash of light, blinding her momentarily, and making her instinctively cover her eyes.

Luda didn't waste a second to cast Photon on Alice, taking her inside the sphere of light. Alice felt her legs go numb as she was forced to kneel, unable to stand up straight. Her right sleeve had been burned completely away and she had various wounds over her right hand and leg.

"Alice!"

Decus ran towards his partner but Aska raised a wall of flame between them, making Decus skid to a stop.

"I'm fine! She'll need more than some light tricks to finish me off!"

As the blonde stood up some ice thin pieces began to fall from her skin, like a snake shedding its skin.

"I see, so that's how you withstood my Photon. You covered yourself with a second skin of ice. Quite clever." Luna tilted her head towards Alice. "However, looking at your arm and leg, it looks like you weren't able to fully cover yourself in time..."

Alice cast a healing on herself. Most of the wounds and the muscular numbness disappeared.

"Are you finished healing yourself?" Luna asked calmly.

"I'm going to wipe that arrogant look off your face!"

Meanwhile, on the other side of the firewall, Decus tried to fight the two headed bird. The second half of the Summons Spirit of Light had a great agility and speed, and had successfully dodged all of Decus' strikes. To make it worse, the bird spat fire from both of his heads, simple fireballs that came together in a tongue of flame that could bath in fire everything in front of him.

Decus charged towards the Summon Spirit, dodging fire balls that exploded behind him. Aska tried to impale him with his beak but Decus had been expecting that, and easily dodged the attack swinging his sword at the bird's neck. Before he could land a blow, the second head lifted up and shot a fire ball that impacted directly on his chest, sending him flying back in a cloud of smoke. Luckily for Decus, he had an affinity for fire that made him exceptionally resistant to fire-based attacks; but he wasn't immune.

"Damn chicken on steroids!" Decus wheezed and coughed as he stood. Aska squawked loudly in response. "Yeah, yeah, I hate you too."

Aska attacked, retracting and extending his long neck at an unbelievable speed, trying to attack him at different angles. Decus parried all the attacks with his blade, sparks flying with each collision. When he dodged a strike, Aska's beak struck the floor, creating a spider web of cracks through the floor.

At that, the Summon Spirit jumped backwards and spat two fireballs that joined in one. Decus fought fire with fire, and using his sword released a wave of purple fire that smashed against Aska's yellow flame.

Aska took flight above Decus, putting himself Decus and the moon, squawking loudly as he flew. The human took his sword with both hands and tightened his grip preparing for the worst.

The Summon Spirit's body became totally engulfed by white flames and swooped down like a meteor against Decus. He let out a shout and swung his sword, wreathed in purple flames against Aska with all his might, but the force of impact pushed him backwards until he almost toppled from the tower.

"Decus, be careful!" Colette warned. As soon as she realized what she had done she put her hands over her mouth.

_What am I doing? I shouldn't be worried __about him. They kidnapped__ me and forced me to do this._

The unexpected warning distracted Decus long enough for Aska to push him closer to the edge, until he couldn't feel the ground under his right heel. Only a few more inches and he would fall. But that gave him an idea; instead of pushing Aska, Decus swung his sword in the same direction that Aska pushed, making him step forward, giving Decus a chance to cleave both heads off their necks.

The headless bird wobbled about clumsily until it fell. The wall of fire that had separated Decus from Alice disappeared, allowing him to join his beloved in the fight against Luna.

"I'm done with the bird." Decus pointed to the headless body of Aska.

"Lovely." Alice smiled. "It looks like your little pet has died!" She taunted Luna with a smile that showed her fangs.

Luna left the safety of her floating moon and went to the dead body of her companion, kneeling at his side.

"Oh, what's wrong? Is the big girl going to cry because she lost her little pet?" Alice asked viciously, unable -and unwilling- to hide her joy.

However, when Luna turned back she had the same stoic expression in her face; she didn't seem to have been affected in slightest by the death of Aska.

Alice snapped her whip, annoyed at her behavior. It didn't matter how much she taunted the spirit, she always had that self-confident gaze of someone who had everything under control.

"Are you sure that you killed Aska?" The Summon Spirit pointed at the burning corpse. In a matter of seconds the body disappeared in flames and replaced by a giant fire that soon took the form of the presumed dead Summon Spirit.

"You must be kidding me." Decus sighed.

"Interesting…" Nickolay muttered as he readjusted his glasses.

Without any warning Luna cast Holly Lance on Decus and Alice, taking them by surprise and surrounding them with sharp spears of light while a glyph formed under them. Before the spell could finish, Decus impaled his sword in the middle of the runic circle and released a purple flame that burned the pattern away, disrupting the spell in the process.

For the first time in the entire fight, the stoic face of Luna changed.

"What is that power!" Luna demanded pointing at Decus.

"Did you like it?" Decus asked smiling. "Is my defensive arte called '_Guardian Angel'._"

"What is that spell?"

"Oh that!" Decus closed his eyes and put his hand under his chin and smiled intriguingly. "Well, that is…" All the eyes were on him waiting impatiently for him to finish. What could be the source of that strange flame?

"MY BURNING LOVE FOR ALICE!" He put a proud hand over his chest.

Alice facepalmed as she muttered "what an idiot," while Luna, Nickolay and even Aska all left their mouth (and beaks) wide open in disbelief. Colette, unlike the rest, smiled, finding the response somehow cute.

Luna shook her head and composed herself.

"That purple fire, could it have something to do with the blue flame? But he is a human, it can't be," she muttered. "I can't take the risk. I am ending this fight now."

As Luna began to cast a spell, the sky above them displayed a shining gold circle covered with symbols written in the angelic language.

"Like I'll ever let you finish that spell. I'll burn you alive before you can finish it!" Alice pointed at Luna with her rapier. "A season in Hell!"

Alice shot a ray direct to Luna but Aska put himself in front of her, taking the damage.

"In the name of the moon, I will punish you!" The glyphs glowed bright and brighter. "Divine Judgment!"

Nickolay, rolled his sleeve up and pressed a button on his bracelet, activating a mana bubble protecting both himself and Colette. Decus and Alice didn't have the same luck and they were caught in the middle of a storm of blinding light.

Colette looked away and covered her eyes with her forearm. She remembered that when they fought against Luna three years ago she hadn't been like this. Last time it had been a duel to measure their strength and see if they were worthy of her power, but this time it looked like the Spirit was determined to kill her foes.

When the Mystic Arte ended Colette looked again to the battle ground.

The body of Alice and Decus lay still on the floor.

Luna bypassed Alice and stood beside Decus, aiming at him with her staff.

"I wish that it didn't have to end like this," she said as the tip of her staff began to shine.

Alice lurched to her feet and pressed the tip of her whip on her back.

"You have ignored me for the last time." The blonde half-elf hissed.

"Impossible, how did you-"

Alice discharged a volley into Luna's back, throwing her several feet away.

"Where is that self-confident look now, Miss Moon?" she taunted, approaching Luna who struggled to recover from the direct attack.

Aska got in her way but was pushed aside by the recovered Decus.

Alice didn't bother to watch that fight, she already knew the result. Instead she kept walking towards Luna. The half-elf looked at the Summon Spirit, tapping the whip against the palm of her hand, looking at her like a master with his misbehaving dog.

"I'm going to enjoy this."

Alice began to beat the Summon Spirit, each hit followed by a taunt: "How does it feel? Do you like it? Does it feel good?"

"How? You don't have a single bruise, how did you do it?" Luna asked as she tried to protect herself with her arms.

* * *

_**Renegade's base**_

"_Which spirit should we start with?" Alice asked to Nickolay._

_The scientist was busy working on some kind of mechanical device that looked like a sword's hilt and didn't bother lifting his head to look at the young half-elf._

"_I guess that the best choice would be to deal with the strongest first, to get it out of the way as soon as possible and avoid future problems."_

"_And that __would be…" Alice dragged out the final syllable comically until Nickolay answered__._

"_Luna and Aska." He answered__._

"_Should I know something about her?"_

"_Yeah, give me a second."_

_Nickolay left what he was doing and began to search something in the computer._

"_Here is it! Divine Judgment!" Nickolay said as he played a video for Alice._

_In the video there was a brown haired man dressed in purple clothes surrounded by Desians or Renegades (she couldn't tell the difference). It was clear that he was at a disadvantage. Suddenly two blue wings of mana rose from his back and light began to pummel the ground mercilessly, killing everyone around him. When the spell ended, only he and a blue haired man were left alive. The video ended just as the blue haired man leapt for the his enemy, cutting off as their swords touched._

"_What was that!"_

"_That's the Mystic Arte called Divine Judgment. And Luna, as __the Summon Spirit of light__ can use it."_

"_And how are we supposed to __avoid that? It just blasted__ everyone in a matter of seconds."_

"_Yeah. Is a powerful spell; however it has a weak point. It never lands in the same spot twice. If you try to run away the possibility of getting hit will only increase, the best way to survive is to wait in one of the blasted spots until it finishes."_

* * *

"Once you know how the mystic arte works it is pretty easy."

Alice knelt in front of the heavily wounded summon Spirit and tapped her head with her rapier.

"And now is time for you to die," she said with a sweet, friendly smile.

"ASKA!" The Summon Spirit screamed.

The bird flew away from Decus, becoming a ball of fire. Decus prepared himself for impact but the bird fell on Luna with so much force that the blast pushed Alice away. Decus ran to his beloved and helped her stand.

"What's that?" Alice asked staring at the pillar of light and flame that had taken Luna's place.

"Maybe she was so afraid of you that she killed herself," Decus suggested.

As flattering as Alice found that, she was afraid that it wasn't the case and her fears were confirmed when she saw something coming out of the pillar of fire.

"I didn't want to use to my original form." An echoing, feminine voice came from the pillar. "But you gave me no other option."

Nickolay readjusted his glasses and smiled. "This is becoming more interesting than expected."

The echoing voice began to speak again as the light slowly dimmed, revealing a feminine shape.

"Four thousand years ago I divided my body in two essences. My emotional side became Aska while my rational one became Luna. I thought that I would never need to use this form again; however, exceptional situations require exceptional measures."

Finally the light disappeared completely revealing a woman. Her body was completely naked and shone with its own radiant light making it impossible to distinguish her completely; her hair, colored like a flame, waved with its own energy; her hands and feet had become claws of fire and from her back sprouted a pairs of fiery wings.

"I am the moon and I am the sun. I am Eclipsis, the summon spirit of light."

"You will need more than a shiny makeover to make me leave!" Alice shouted back.

"Leave?" Eclipsis asked. "I'm afraid that you should have taken that chance when Luna gave it to you." In a fraction of second she appeared in front of Alice with her burning claw up in the air ready to shatter the blonde girl. "I'm afraid that I am not as benevolent as her."

Alice jumped backwards avoiding the first hit but before her feet touched the ground Eclipsis was already before her, ready to strike again. Almost miraculously, Decus managed to push Alice aside in time to save her from the attack but he paid the consequences with a deep wound in his shoulder.

"Damn!" he grunted as he tried to push Eclipsis away with his sword.

While Decus kept busy with Eclipsis, Alice saw her chance to shoot at her while she was distracted. However the spirit of light was far from being distracted and in the second Alice cast the spell, she got out of the way, leaving Decus to take the hit.

"Decus!" Alice shouted in surprise. She knew that if Eclipsis dodged the spell she could hit him but she never actually expected the summon spirit to be so fast.

"You have no time to worry about anyone else!" Eclipsis was already before her.

Alice covered her toy rapier with a blade of ice to parry the attack. Eclipsis struck her mercilessly, the first slash cracking the blade, the second one breaking it completely, and the third one slashing her belly.

"You…" Alice grunted, gritting her teeth.

The summon spirit put her claw in front her face without hesitation and began to cast:

"Holy powers let me be your hand in this world and punish the sinners!" Alice looked frightened as a magic glyph was drawn in the air before her. There was no way she could avoid the attack at this distance. "With your holy flames..."

Eclipsis moved her hand away of her head and pointed towards her real target, Decus.

"ALIIIICE!" He charged the summon spirit, waving his sword.

"Purgatory Fire!" Eclipsis shouted.

A white beam of twisting fire slammed into Decus and trapped him inside a white explosion.

"Decus!" Alice screamed, horrified.

"What a fool." Eclipsis panted, looking at the white fire.

The summon spirit moved her hand in front of Alice's face, and began to cast the same incarnation that she used against Decus, but this time her target was the half-elf.

Alice's hands began to tremble. She wanted nothing more than to run away, her brain was telling her to run but her muscles wouldn't obey; it was like she was paralyzed .

"Don't worry. It won't hurt." The last runic symbol materialized in front of her eyes. "Purgatory Fi-!" when suddenly a ball of purple flames knocked her hand to one side, making her miss.

"What is the meaning of this!"

Decus emerged from the holy flames pouncing over Eclipsis with his sword covered in fire. Aside of some bruises on his clothes and face he presented no trace of being wounded. His hair, free of the ponytail, moved wildly as he moved. Using both hands he swung his weapon like a barbarian, driving Eclipsis away with his ferocity.

_This is ridiculous! _Alice snatched up her rapier. _I'm not going to be a damsel in distress__!_

Eclipsis flapped her wings, releasing a surge of fire to get away of her aggressor. To her surprise, Decus was no were to be seen when the fire went out, and in his place was Alice in a casting position. The ground below her began to shine with the blue light of an ice spell.

"How obvious."

The summon spirit flew upward to avoid the spell, not realized she was falling directly into the trap. When she looked up she saw Decus already falling towards her with his sword over his head.

"Your pain is my pleasure!" Alice shouted. "Suffer!"

"SCHADENFREUDE!" Decus and Alice shouted in unison.

Alice lifted a sharp pillar of ice from the ground as Decus struck the summon spirit with his sword sending her down towards the icicle. Eclipsis was impaled on it through her stomach, making her scream in agony.

"Finally…" Alice sighed and sat over the floor.

Decus ran towards his beloved and knelt at her side with a worried expression. "You are fine aren't you! That thing didn't hurt you did she?"

"Get away from me, Dumbo-Decus! What have we discussed about personal space?" Alice waved him away dismissively. "I'm trying to breathe and that's impossible when you smell to smoke." She pointed to his jacket.

"Oh! No problem, I'll just put on some of my heady fragrance and it will be fine."

"That wasn't what I meant!" She put her hand over her forehead and sighed. "The remedy is going to be worse than the disease."

Alice groaned as stood up to stop him when a white fire ball smashed against his body sending him tumbling over the floor.

"Decus!" Alice shouted horrified to see how her mate had been thrown like a ragged doll.

She tried to run to her partner but she fell on all fours after the first step. Her knees were wounded and her muscles too numbed for walking. The half-elf looked where the shot had come from and couldn't believe what she saw. Eclipsis, who had no trace of any wound on her body, was walking as if nothing had happened towards Decus.

Alice closed her eyes as she used all her will to stand on her trembling legs.

"Stop! Don't-" Alice's leg bent, forcing her to one knee. "Don't take one more step!"

Eclipsis gave a condescendingly look to the girl and kept her path unconcerned.

Alice grunted the first incantation that came to her mind but only harmless sparks came out from the end of whip. Alice repeated the spell over and over again in despair but nothing happened.

"It's useless." Eclipsis explained. "You have no more mana. There is no way that you can cast a spell in your current condition. You have reached your limit."

"Shut up! You know nothing about me!" Alice screamed. "I won't let you get closer to him!"

"How unexpected, but still there is nothing you can do," The summon spirit sighed with. "You have shown bravery, and I respect that. Leave now, and I will forgive you." The summons spirit looked to Decus with her eyes half closed. "However, he won't share your luck."

Eclipsis materialized a blade of light in her hand when a chilling wind current took her attention. She looked up and widened her eyes in surprise when she saw the half-elf in an airstream that twisted her clothes about with her whip releasing dangerous rays and looking at her with a murderous gaze.

"DIE!" Alice screamed.

Eclipsis had no time to react when the ray struck her with the force of a thunderclap.

Alice kept electrocuting Eclipsis until her will was completely drained, and unable to hold her own weight any longer, she felt to the floor exhausted. All of her muscles were completely numb. She was as good as paralyzed.

The wind disappeared, the smoke cloud slowly revealing an angelic like figure. Alice couldn't believe what she saw. Eclipsis had lost one of her wings and her right arm, but she was still alive.

"What a desperate attack." Eclipsis said calmly as if nothing had happened to her. "I can't believe that you actually used your vital-mana to cast a spell, you should consider yourself lucky for being still able to breathe. I guess that you want to die with him."

Alice's pupils contracted in horror at the sight of how Eclipsis' lost members grew, again engulfed in fire.

"Surprised?" she asked calmly. "As I told you before, Aska was part of me. His everlasting regeneration power is mine."

Suddenly a deafening high pitched scream got the summon spirit's attention. At the other side of the tower, Colette was being held off the edge by the pink haired man she had been ignoring all the fight.

"I see what you have in mind and I will not allow it!" Nickolay shouted pushing the Chosen a little further into the void until his grip was the only thing preventing her fall. "Get away from her or the Chosen will meet a sudden tragic end tonight."

Colette looked down in terror while the gravity threatened her to absorb her. Her stomach shuddered. It all happened so fast; Nickolay was at her side without doing anything aside of looking the fight and after Alice's failed her attack he said something about losing an experiment subject and next thing she knew, that she was being held off the corner of the tower.

She closed her eyes but that didn't make it better. Her stomach shuddered; the image of the void was impressed in her mind. She tried to think of anything else; puppies, her friends, Lloyd -how much she would like be in his arms now-, but her brain only displayed fantasies of her falling.

"Release her and the next thing you will see is your body falling without your head." Eclipsis threatened walking slowly towards him.

The pulse of the scientist began to quicken.

"Don't give one step further! Get away from me or I will push her!"

Eclipsis materialized a sword of fire and light in her right hand.

Nickolay looked to his right and left as the spirit walked closer and closer to him. Threatening someone much more powerful than him didn't seem to have been his cleverest idea. Driven by despair, he threw the Chosen out of the tower.

Colette screamed in terror and began to cry; the wind took away the tears from her eyes as if they were little rain drops. She didn't want to die yet. Thanks to Lloyd she wasn't that little girl anymore, and now all she wanted was to fully enjoy her life. But the thought of the brunette only brought her more pain. She would die without telling Lloyd how she felt about him.

In the middle of the fall she felt a warm protective embrace. She opened her eyes and saw Eclipsis smiling at her like a mother to her child.

"Don't worry," she whispered.

The summons spirit opened her wings and flew back to the top of the tower and dropped Colette in a safe place.

"I will take care of this Chosen," Eclipsis reassured with a comforting smile.

Her smile faded away when she looked the pink-haired half-elf.

The scientist began to walk backwards as he looked around nervously. He tried to run away but as soon as he did Eclipsis teleported in front of him. The ex-Desian fell back in shock and began to crawl away.

"Don't kill me, I'm not a threat," he begged. "Why don't you kill them?" He pointed to Decus and Alice. "They were the ones who tried to kill you not me! Go and kill those two."

"You are nothing but a pathetic coward," Eclipsis grunted. "You hid yourself behind a harmless innocent and now you sell your own companions. Your kind disgusts me."

"Don't kill me I swear I won't do anything like this anymore!"

"I have lived thousands of years; if you thought that I would believe something like that you are more stupid than I thought."

Eclipsis took her sword and launched a deadly blow to his neck.

It was pure instinct that saved him. Nickolay flailed about wildly, dodging her blow and sending a blue line through her arm. The half-elf was holding a mechanical sword hilt in his shaking hands that emanated a thin blade of blue light. Before her severed arm touched the ground, he let out a mad laugh and swung the sword at her, making a second cut in her side that made her quiver for a second. Emboldened by her hesitance, he took another swipe, this time at her wing. Eclipsis teleported away from him before he made contact.

The summon spirit put her left hand over what was left of her forearm and looked at the scientist with a mixed emotion of hate and disbelief.

"I almost got you…" Nickolay chuckled.

Eclipsis choked and coughed up blue fluid, snarling once the spasms had died. "Don't be so cocky half-human! Or have you forgotten that you can't kill me," she said as her arm and wing regenerated.

Nickolay just let out a trembling laugh.

"You thought that I would fall for that?" he asked, his voice slowly gaining strength with every word.

"What do you mean?"

"You don't have the power to regenerate yourself!" he exclaimed. "All you've done until now was use healing spells that mixed with Aska powers! That's what has allowed you to recover from all your wounds." And he pointed at her with his sword.

Eclipsis gritted her teeth and growled.

"That changes nothing! I will regenerate myself with my everlasting healing powers!"

"No, it changes everything. If I can manage to deal a deadly blow, you won't be able to cast any spell."

"And what makes you think that you will be able to wound me again? You were only able to hit me because I lowered my guard."

"Because I already did it." He readjusted his glasses. His hands weren't shaking anymore.

"Wha-" Her question was abruptly cut by the feeling of a sharp blade crossing her head from side to side. Her eyes and mouth began to tremble in disbelieve, the blade of his sword had expanded fifty feet.

"You thought that all I was going to do was brag about how smart I am? What kind of comic villain are you taking me for? I pointed my sword in a spot between your eyes in which from that angle you can see the third dimension of my sword, in other words, you could see the tip, but you couldn't perceive the longitude. And now…" He decreased the size of his sword and the body of the spirit began to fall. Nickolay increased the size of the blade again and cut the body horizontally in two.

Both sides separated from each other as they fell allowing Eclipsis to momentarily see her other half. Both halves extended their arms trying to touch each other, but before the tips of their fingers joined they disintegrated into white shiny dust.

Colette looked on as the wind took away the remains of the spirit of light, a series of conflicting emotions in her heart. Part of her felt sad for the spirit who so bravely protected her and the seal of light. But part of her also felt relief, if the summon spirit had won Decus and Alice would be dead. She knew she shouldn't care, but instead there was relief.

_If only I could show Alice that the world isn't how she thinks it is, I could help her to redeem herself,_ the blonde Chosen thought.

"Are you alright?" Nickolay asked, looking her pupils.

Colette just nodded.

"I'm glad that everything went as planned. I wouldn't have forgiven myself if I had lost you." He gave her a cold look.

The scientist checked Decus and Alice, paying much more attention to the Cruxis Crystal than her health. Once he was done he stood up and summoned two spherical robots that teleported at his side and lifted the unconscious pair into a gravity sphere.

"Are you coming with me or will I have to summon a third drone?" He turned to look at her as the robots took Decus and Alice's unconscious bodies.

Out of options, she nodded and followed him. But now she had a new reason to follow them. She had to change Alice and Decus' minds.

* * *

**The Ginnungagap**

In the depths of the Monster graveyard one of the eight lights that surround the hell-gate shines and suddenly turned off.

"What was that?" Richter asked aloud.

"Luna and Aska have been defeated." Ratatosk said after materializing at his side. "This is really bad. Tenebrae!"

The centurion appeared instantly at the call of his master.

"Did you call us master Ratatosk?" Tenebrae asked.

"Yes. Can you still feel that kid?" The lord of the monsters asked.

"Emil?" Tenebrae closed his eyes. "Yes, I can find him."

"Wait a minute! What's going on!" Richter demanded interrupting their conversation.

"Shut up! I have no time for this, mortal!"

Richter was about to reply when he noticed Ratatosk's worried expression and decided to do as he was told, if the Summon Spirit of monsters looked so nervous it couldn't be for nothing.

"The seal of light has turned off you know what that means. Tenebrae, find him and his friends."

"What will you do, Master Ratatosk?"

"The rest of the Centurions and I will help Richter keep it closed as much as we can. You know what you have to do. Hurry up, I don't know for how long we'll be able to hold out."

Tenebrae nodded and left.

"Can I know what's going on now?" Richter asked again, not liking one bit of what he'd heard.

"Damn half-human! This is your entire fault!" Ratatosk accused pointing to Richter. "You weakened the seal that have separated Hell and Iselia for millennia. And now someone is sealing the seals that helped to keep the gate to Hell closed. If we don't stop whoever is doing this before more seals are closed, not even your mana with the united power of the centurions and myself will be enough to keep the gate closed."

* * *

**I hope you are all like it, I never write a fight scene so long but luckily for me "Storyteller of Darkness" was a good example.**

**As always reviews will be highly appreciated. You can be sure that I read all of your ideas and think about them.**

**Until the next update.**


	15. Nightmare in Wonderland

**Author notes: Finally, after two months I have been able to update this. Sorry to everyone, but Zelda SS took a lot of the free time I usually spend to write and if that wasn't enough my beta-reader had her college exams and obviously couldn't beta read it quickly. But here is it. I hope you enjoy it.**

**Anonymous reviews:**

_Sturm and Drang:__ As you said, no main character is full without that weird and special thing that only he has, however to discover what is it you will have to keep reading. I agree Nickolay giving the finishing blow was anticlimactic, Alice deserved to kill Eclipsis more than anyone else, but I wanted Nickolay to do it because I wanted it to be unexpected and add more drama to Alice's and Decus' situation. So you want Shadow because he is just that awesome, interesting…_

* * *

**EPISODE 2: THE JOURNEY OF DEGENERATION.**

**Chapter 15: Nightmare in Wonderland.**

**Palmacosta.**

Emil walked downstairs in the early hours of the morning, barely able to see the sunshine with one hand rubbing his eyes and the other over the rail. All his friends were staying in what was now Marta's house. She had asked him if he would live with her, something that he happily agreed to; but when he was being honest with himself he wasn't really sure it had been a good idea.

When he finally arrived to the kitchen he saw a familiar black dog-like Centurion sitting on a chair.

"Good morning Tenebrae," he mumbled, yawning as he opened the fridge.

"Good morning Emil," Tenebrae replied politely.

The blonde teen took out a milk carton and noticing that it was almost empty decided to drink directly from the carton. It was in the middle of this that he noticed just who he had greeted, and shocked by the dark spectator, he choked and on the milk, and stared coughing while Tenebrae calmly looked on.

"Tenebrae! What are you doing here?"

"_Who are you? Nice to see you! I'm so glad that you're back!" _Possibly any other option would have been a better choice than what had just come out of his mouth.

Tenebrae lifted from the chair he was sat on and floated closer to Emil. Facing Emil, eyes shining with a vicious red light, he said in a dark voice:

"I have come here to kill you."

Emil legs began to shake in fear and his face froze in horror as he dropped the milk carton. Then he did what could only be expected from the boy who defeated the lord of the monsters and help to preserve the balance of Aselia: he screamed like a little girl.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

The scream woke Marta and dressed only in her nightgown, who armed with her disk, ran to save her knight in distress. When she saw him on the floor, with Tenebrae laughing so hard that he was nearly crying, her heart jumped with joy. She downstairs as fast as she could and embraced her old friend, forgetting completely about Emil.

"Tenebrae! How are you? I'm so glad to see you! There are so many things that I want to tell you!"

"I'm glad to see you too Lady Marta!" He said, wiping away his tears with his tail.

"What happened to him?" she asked, looking at the blonde boy who was still shaking in terror.

"I don't know. I told him a joke and he suddenly freaked out."

"A JOKE!" Emil shouted and pointed with the finger to the centurion of darkness. "HE JUST SAT THERE AND SAID THAT HE WAS GOING TO KILL ME WITH THAT CRAZY LOOK IN HIS EYES! AND YOU CALL THAT JOKE!"

"It is called dark humor. And you are hurting my feelings by implying that I would ever try to kill you! You should know that among all the Centurions, I'm known for my tasteful sense of humor." Tenebrae puffed out his chest in pride.

"You're nuts! You almost give me a heart attack!" Emil accused.

"Hahaha! Thank you!"

"That's not a compliment!"

"Oh! It is true… I forgot that humans can't live if their hearts stop beating. I must apologize, that expression means something else for the elemental beings."

Emil stood up and began to recover his breath when Zelos suddenly opened the door to his room, dressed only with his underwear.

"What's going on? It's only seven in the morning…" Zelos asked, scratching at his head.

"Yeah, do you have to be so noisy?" Genis came out after Zelos in his pajama, rubbing his eyes and yawning.

Tenebrae blinked surprised.

"The two of you are residing here?"

"What an unexpected visitor," Raine interrupted casually as she finished the tie on her robe and slowly descended the stairs.

"Professor Raine, you too?" Tenebrae looked at the two teens standing before him. "Marta, Emil, what exactly have you been doing?"

"What do you mean?" Emil was blushing furiously. "They're our friends and since they were in town we invited them to our house."

"Our house! You said it Emil!" Marta jumped over Emil in pure joy, toppling him to the floor with her embrace. "It makes me so happy to hear you saying that!"

"It looks like some things haven't changed at all in my absence." Tenebrae chuckled.

Emil began to stutter incomprehensibly, not sure what to say. He liked living with Marta, and he loved to spend time with her, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to be with her the way she wanted. And he could tell her that, but he didn't want her to think that he didn't want to be with her either. Sometimes he wondered why relationships had to be so hard.

Suddenly the door on the west side of the room smashed open as if it had been kicked. From it came Sheena in a flying somersault, landing on one leg and holding a magic seal in both hands, aiming each one in a different direction.

"Prepare to die!" All the eyes turned on Sheena with a dull, questioning look. "What?"

"Nice entry. And it only took you two minutes to come out." Zelos said unimpressed crossing his arms. "Luckily for us there are no enemies." Zelos explained.

Sheena blushed like a teenager and took a more casual position.

"Wh-what? Bu-But I heard a girl's scream."

"Tha-that was me…" Emil stuttered lifting his hand.

Tenebrae began to chuckle.

"It-It's not funny Tenebrae!" Emil spluttered.

"You are right, it isn't funny at all." Tenebrae said, regaining a distinguished composure. "And I'm sorry if I have hurt your feelings in any way, Lady Emil."

"No problem… Wait, what!"

Tenebrae began to laugh harder.

Raine took a cup of coffee and took a seat in the table.

"I'm glad to see you, but I don't think that one of the Centurions in charge of keeping the balance of the world has come to us only to say hello. Am I wrong?" Raine asked as she put two spoons of sugar in the coffee.

"That was a direct question but you are right; I haven't come here just to visit, and to tell you the truth I'm in a hurry." Tenebrae gave Raine a serious look. "Aselia is in danger and Ratatosk demands your help to avoid an imminent disaster."

"A disaster!" Genis and Marta shouted in unison.

"My, how troublesome." Zelos sighed. "Can't I have only one year of peace? I'm only asking for one year, is it that much?"

"Wait, wait, what's going on?" Emil asked.

"I don't know who, how, or why, but someone has destroyed the Summon Spirit of light and closed her seal. Whoever they are, they are putting Aselia in a great danger. If they keep closing the seals the Hell Gate might open, and then the entire world will be in serious trouble."

"Well, that's not a problem I can open the seal again and-" Sheena's optimistic reply was quickly cut out by Tenebrae.

"I'm afraid that you didn't listen to me properly. The Summon Spirit of light hasn't been defeated in a fight as you once did to make a pact with her, she has been _destroyed_."

"What! But I didn't feel anything! We are both linked." Sheena cried. Then she tried to summon Luna, unsuccessfully.

"Stop trying, is useless."

"I may be wrong, but the information I collected during the years indicated that the Summon Spirits were immortal," Raine said.

"You aren't completely wrong, Professor. I may have misspoken," Tenebrae explained. "The Summon Spirits cannot truly die, but if they are destroyed near their seal, they are banished into the deeps of the Ginnungagap where they will eventually regenerate and return. However the process takes about thousand years."

"I'll summon Shadow, he may know something about it," Sheena said. Her shadow began to increase unnaturally over the wall as she recited the incantation for the Summon Spirit of darkness. When she spoke the last word, two dark arms emerged from her shadow and grabbing the wall, slowly took the full form of Shadow.

"What…do you… want…" The summon spirit wheezed as if he had breathing problem.

"Is true that Luna has been destroyed?" Sheena asked.

Shadow closed his eyes for a moment and nodded. "Yes… I can no longer feel… her… presence…"

"Can you tell me what happened?"

The Summon Spirit looked at Sheena thoughtfully and twisting upside down began to study her; and after stalling a few seconds he finally replied:

"I can show it to you…"

"Fine, then show it to me!"

"I must warn you… about the risks…"

"Risks?" Sheena frowned.

"You will see what she saw… But you… yuo will also feel what she felt…" Shadow warned.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa… Calm down a minute," Zelos interrupted. "Feel what she felt? Are you crazy? Do you mean that someone will have to experience Luna's death and go though all her pain just to know what happened?" Shadow nodded. "Yeah, sure, as if someone would be stupid enough to do something like that!"

"He's right. I'll do it," Sheena said.

"What? Are you an idiot!" Zelos demanded. "We have no idea of what she had to go through, for all we know she could have been tortured to death!"

"And how will we know who they are if we don't!" Sheena snapped.

""What! You are kidding me, right? No one needs you to be the hero here! I'm not going to let you do such a stupid thing! And this is the end of the discussion."

Zelos took Sheena by the arm and tried to drag her away from Shadow but the ninja escaped with a strong yank and walked towards Shadow.

"Since when you think you can take the decisions for me, stupid Chosen!"

"What's wrong with you? Who are you trying to impress with this? Do your boobs need so much blood that you brain's not getting enough!"

Those words irritated Sheena so much that she slapped him with all her might, almost knocking him to the floor. Emil, about to interrupt, closed his mouth, and for a moment everyone stood in silence looking at the pair. Zelos rubbed his pained cheek and looked at Sheena who glared at him.

"Fine!" Zelos shouted. "If you want to torture yourself go ahead! I don't even know why I care." And with those words he left the dining room and shut the door to his room with a bang.

Sheena ignored Zelos' forceful exit and walked back to Shadow.

"OK! Let's do this," she demanded.

"Sheena, wait!" Raine exclaimed. "I know I can't talk you out of this, but I have to warn you that you could suffer a shock or even the death. It's too risky."

Sheena took a deep breath and tried to calm down.

"I understand those risks. But I can't just sit around and wait for things to happen when I have the chance to do something. This is something I must do, this is the Mizuho way."

Raine nodded in apprehension.

"OK, Shadow, let's do this."

"As you wish… but once I begin… I won't… be able to stop… until the vision is over…"

Sheena nodded and Shadow took her head in both hands and closed his eyes to hers. Sheena blinked and when she opened her eyes she saw a torrent of images before her until she reached the final fight.

Everyone looked at Sheena who seemed to be in some sort of trance, her eyes moving quickly from side to side. Everything seemed fine until she suddenly began to scream.

"EEEYAAAHHHH!"

"Sheena!" Emil shouted as he run towards her and tried to pull her away from Shadow.

The rest also tried to pull Shadow away from her, but it was useless. Sheena's muscles started to shake and she began to cry. Marta took one of Shadow's arm and pulled, trying to release her friend.

"I can't free her!"

Zelos came out running from his room, now fully dressed, and pushed Marta away from Shadow's arm. With his unsheathed sword, hecut off Shadow's right arm with a clean slice what allowed Raine, Genis and Emil to pull Sheena from his grasp.

Shadow's limb became a purple puddle that joined the Summon Spirit once again and he slowly regenerated his arm. Then he looked to Zelos with his merciless red eyes.

"Well… done…"

Zelos nodded and knelt towards the coal haired summoner.

"Is she OK?"

Raine nodded. "She's in shock, but she looks fine."

"That idiot. I knew this would happen," Zelos grumbled as he pushed aside her bangs.

At his touch, Sheena suddenly opened her eyes and began to touch her body nervously, as if making sure it was still there.

"Are you OK?" Marta asked.

"I-I-I saw everything. I-I saw them! I-I-I-"

"Calm down Sheena," Marta said. "I'll bring you a glass of water."

"A pink haired guy and those two from the Vanguard. The sadist and the idiot who was with her. I-I don't remember their names. They did it!"

"Decus and Alice?" Emil asked confused.

"Yeah! And Colette was with them too. They were the ones who kidnapped Colette!"

Marta suddenly frozen and dropped the glass of water shattered all over the floor.

* * *

_**?**_

_Alice woke up in a long meadow with a lonely tree in the middle of a small hill. The meadow was covered with a dense mist and the green grass was wet and should have been teeming with life. But the place seemed to be completely dead, without wind or tweeting birds. The only sound she could hear was the sound of her own steps on the grass and the shuffling of her own clothing. The place was too calm and silent to be anything except frighteningly lonely._

"_What is this place?" Alice said aloud._

_The echo of her voice repeated the question over and over again until it slowly died._

"_Anyone here?" she shouted. Her echo was the only reply she got._

"_I have no time for this," she grumbled._

_Alice walked away, leaving the tree behind her. After a few minutes walking she saw something in the distance and quickened her pace. It was the same hill with the same tree._

"_What! I left it behind me!" _

_Alice ran away in another direction, only to come back to the exact same place._

"_What the hell is going on! This shouldn't be here!" _

_The half-elf covered the tip of her rapier with ice, made a cut on the side of the tree, and ran off again. After a few minutes she found a hill with a tree on it and walked closer to see if it had any cut. When she inspected the tree there it was, the exact same mark._

"_No way! Impossible! It's impossible! This can't be happening!"_

_Alice slashed the tree in frustration over and over again, before running away once more. She was soon back to the tree._

"_AH!"_

_No matter the direction she took all her path ended in the same spot. She ran and ran until she fell exhausted onto her knees._

"_This-this can't be happening! Not to me, it just can't be happening!" she chanted, trying to recover her breath. "This must be a dream… That's it! I'll just close my eyes and when I open them again I'll be in a nice and comfortable bed."_

_Alice squeezed her eyes shut and then opened them suddenly but nothing had changed. Alice screamed and stumbling over her own feet, nearly fell down the cliff, meeting her black bunny like monster, Porthos, at the end._

"_Porthos?"_

_Her pet only looked at her and jumped into a den placed between the roots of the tree. _

"_Porthos, come back!" Alice shouted__,__ running behind it._

_The blonde girl knelt in front of the tree and followed into the den. She had only gone a few steps before the ground under her broke and she fell into a deep pit. As she fell the pit became wider and wider and the ground of the walls was replaced by cold white ice; but maybe the weirdest thing was that as she fell there was no wind whipping past her. When she saw the floor she covered her head with her arms, instinctively preparing herself for the worst. When she finally collided with the floor she could feel the force of her own impact; but to her surprise it didn't hurt even a little, and there was no trace of a wound in her body._

_Alice stood up heavily and looked around herself, she was inside some kind of ice palace. From the floor and walls, to the majestic columns and the vaults everything was made of ice and at the end of the main hall over a podium with chairs there was an intimidating frozen throne._

_Her jaw dropped._ "_That's-"_

"_Amazing?" The familiar voice came from behind her. "Yes, it is."_

_Alice__turned and saw her duplicate walking toward her. Its eyes were crimson, with skin the color of fresh snow; its hair was limp and colorless, and it was dressed in black dress just like hers. In the middle of her chest she had a crimson Cruxis Crystal and all the veins near it were black like the coal._

"_Who are you?"_

"_Don't you recognize me, Alice?"_

_That __**thing**__ began to circle her, a predator toying with its quarry. Alice was hard put to follow it without spinning about._

"_I have been with you since your parents were killed. I'm the one who has protected us both for these long twelve years." It stopped and drew closer to her. "I'm __**you,**__ Alice." _

_Then it disappeared in a cloud of black smoke, and reappeared sitting on the throne._

"_However, you can call me Arisu."_

"_Well, whatever__.__" Alice rolled her eyes . "I just want to get out of here, so if you would be a nice girl and tell me the way out?" _

"_You want to leave? But you only just got here!" Arisu pouted._

_Suddenly it was gone, reappearing behind Alice's back, whispering, "Besides, I want to show you something."_

_Alice turned to face Arisu but it had disappeared again, and despite her efforts, was not to be found. She had almost given up when she saw her reflection in the ice beneath her feet, dressed in black clothes and waving a hand to her. The floor began to reflect a grassy scene. Alice took a step back, not understanding; and when she lifted her gaze she saw that the walls displayed a thick forest, and the roof and its vaults a stormy night._

"_What the hell is this?"_

_Arisu had appeared at her side again and pointed to a pair running with their daughter in the lashing rain. _

"_I can't keep going on!" The blonde woman's voice was muffled by exhaustion._

_The white haired man with pointed ears helped her stand, and they kept running._

"_They are coming, Maria! We must keep going!"_

"_Da-a-a-a-a-d! Mo-o-o-om!" __The little girl wailed._

_Alice recognized them all. The half-elves were her parents, the crying girl was herself, and she exactly knew what was going to happen._

"_What the hell are you doing!" Alice demanded. "I don't want to see this. Make it stop, right now!"_

_Arisu just laughed._

_Suddenly the small family was surrounded by five wolves, all standing on six legs. The little girl grabbed her father's leg and began to cry harder. _

"_You have to get Alice out of here!" The elf bent and took up a long heavy stick from the ground as he spoke._

"_I can't leave you here, Robert!" The woman was crying._

_One of the monsterslunged at the woman and his daughter but her husband struck it across the head while it was in midair and sent it crashing to the ground. It wobbled to its feet shaking its head, momentarily stunned. _

"_Run! NOW!"_

_With a sob, she took her daughter and ran as fast as she could, leaving her husband behind._

"_Da-a-a-d-e-e-e-e!" The little girl cried as she was carried away. _

_The elf gave her a sad smile and tightened his hold the stick._

"_I won't let you kill my wife and my daughter!"_

_The six-legged beasts surrounded him and began to stalk closer in a tightening circle. One tried to attack him and he smashed its head with the stick; but while the first one distracted him, a second bit deep into the back of his leg, ripping out a large chunk of muscle and spraying blood on the dirt road. He fell to his knees in pain._

_As he struggled to stand, one of the creatures tackled him to the ground. He tried to hit it with his improvised weapon but the monster was too fast for him. The man began to swing the stick around him to keep the beasts away but he was beginning to tire and he was losing blood. The monsters noticed and when he tried to recover his breath one grasped his arm in its jaw and then the rest of the monsters jumped over him._

"_I've seen enough! I don't want to keep watching this!" Alice was on the verge of tears. "Stop it! Stop it! STOP IT!" _

_But there was no reply._

_Meanwhile the woman had kept running with her daughter, but escape was useless with the monsters hot on her heels. Knowing that there was no salvation for her she took her daughter and placed her inside a small niche in a near rock wall._

"_Mommy, don't leave me!"_

_The woman caressed her daughter's check with her hand, trying to calm her._

"_Don't worry Alice, mommy and daddy will be fine, the goddess Martel will take care of us."_

_The girl nodded and took her hand. That seemed soothe her and the sobs began to lessen._

_The woman opened her mouth as if to speak and coughed blood over her daughter's face. She fell away from the girl who looked at her blood-soaked hands and began to tremble._

"_Mom?"_

_Alice knelt over the floor covering her ears with her hands and began to cry. Why was Arisu showing her parent's death?_

"_GET ME OUT OF HERE! MAKE IT STOP!" Alice screamed. "I don't want to be here!"_

_Then, suddenly, all the forest images disappeared, and Alice was back in the Ice Palace. She stood up shakily and wiped the tears off her cheeks with her sleeve._

"_You are weak, Alice." Arisu's voice echoed all over the hall. "And you are going to die just like your parents did. You will end like them, dead, ravaged by monsters!"_

"_No, no, no… I'm strong, I can defend myself!" Alice shrank in on herself, backing away to get away._

"_You almost died in the Mana Tower because you are weak. Marta defeated you because you are weak." Arisu appeared in front of her. "And because you are weak you will die!"_

"_No,no… I don't want to die. I don't want to end up like them__!__"_

_Then her own body, hanging from a noose, fell behind her and suddenly all the palace became full of corpses of herself: decapitated, impaled, burned, strangled, stabbed… _

"_Ahhhhhhhhh!"_

* * *

**Umazy lake.**

Decus sat beside Alice with crossed legs, watching her as she slept peacefully.

Colette did her own watching as she ate. When she looked at Alice it was hard to believe that she was such a selfish, cold hearted sadist: in her sleep she seemed like an ordinary girl.

"Ahhhhhhhhh!"

Decus fell on his back at her scream. Alice was initially confused and frightened but after a few seconds of looking around she calmed down. Decus got up and knelt in front of her.

"Are you alright my dear?"

"It-it was just a stupid nightmare!"

"Don't worry; I'm here with you my little pigeon!"

Decus tried to embrace her but Alice kicked him in the face.

"Get away from me, you smelly freak! I'm fine, it was just a nightmare!" Alice hugged herself and shuddered. It had felt quite real.

Decus got up quickly and adopted a heroic position looking towards the sky.

"Fear not my dear angel; your knight in shining armor is beside you, protecting you the evils of the real world and of the kingdom of dreams!"

Colette giggled. Alice gave her a killing glare and looked back to Decus.

"Stop making a show out of this. You look like a moron, even more than usual."

That cut into Decus' mood. He scratched his head and began to look around, not really seeming to know what to do or say. Then he seemed to remember something and took the ramen he had prepared and handed it to Alice.

"You should eat something. Nickolay told me that you spent too much mana in our fight against Eclipsis and that you need to eat so you can recover."

"The fight against Eclipsis…" She took the bowl of ramen with trembling hands. She tried to remember what happened but everything after her attack was blank. "What happened?"

"From what Nickolay told me, you almost defeated her when-"

Decus suddenly stop talking and began to study her face intently. Alice raised her eyebrows as she ate the noodles.

At last she couldn't take it anymore. "What is it! Stop staring at me!"

"Your eyes… They- they are red."

"Wait, what!" Alice put the ramen down, offended. "What do you mean my eyes are red? My eyes are gold, like the sweetest honey! Just like me!"

"I know, I know, but now they're red!"

Decus turned around and began to shout Nickolay's name. After a few seconds he emerged from the brush.

"What, what, what!" Nickolay shouted. "I found something interesting in the lake near here, this better be important!"

"My eyes are red!" Alice yelled, pointing at her eye. "WHY!"

Nickolay smiled and walked closer. He took a small bulb from one of the pockets of his lab coat and shone its light in Alice's eyes.

"Fascinating…" he whispered, moving the bulb forwards, backwards, and from side to side.

"Get that out of my eye!" Alice complained, pushing his hands away.

"Why are they red?" Decus asked.

"Well... From what I can see, it seems that after opening the seal the Cruxis Crystal has begun to release its power and her body is adapting to the changes. The change in the iris's pigmentation is just a side effect caused by the unusual release of energy in her body."

"So does this mean that I'm becoming more powerful?" Alice asked impatiently.

"Indeed. To put it another way you are evolving."

Alice looked at the Cruxis Crystal and grinned widely.

"Wait a minute!" Decus shouted. "You didn't say anything about mutations! Did you know about this?"

"Well, I had some suspicions." He replied.

Colette looked at Decus who had begun an argument with Nickolay about Alice's health. The odd thing was that Alice didn't interrupt him as she usually would have. Instead, she was looking at the Cruxis Crystal as if it was the only thing that mattered in the world. And Colette knew that the change in her eyes was only the start, that things would become much worse if she didn't get rid of it. But Alice didn't seem the kind of person that would be open to that kind of discussion, just as Colette hadn't while on the journey of regeneration. If something terrible happened, she would keep it to herself.

But Alice would never listen to her anyway, and Colette knew it. The only person she might open up to was the only one she seemed to have a little of trust in: Decus. If Colette wanted to reach her it would have to be through him.

* * *

**Palmacosta**

Lloyd was still sleeping in one of Marta's guest rooms, with the sheets half-undone and one of his legs hanging off the mattress.

"Shouldn't we tell him about Colette?" Genis asked peeking with one eye through the half open door.

"It would only worry him more." Raine replied as she wrote a letter. "He's tired, these last few days may have been worst for him than for anyone else. We'll tell him once he wakes up; but right now he needs to rest."

Genis sighed and closed the door behind him.

"Who are you writing to?"

"Regal and Presea. I'm sure that they would like to know about this as much as we do. Besides, we might need their help."

* * *

**I guess you all noticed the "Alice in wonderland" hint, I just thought it would be fun. And just in case you didn't know Arisu is Alice in Japanese and of course her original name. The idea of Arisu came to my mind after watching a fanart drawn by Sarahwashere in DA. I guess some of you have already figured out what Arisu is.**

**As always your reviews and opinions will be highly appreciated. After all is the only way I have to know what you think about my fic.**

**Oh! I almost forget it! Happy winter solstice and whatever you celebrate in this season.**


	16. Chapter 16

_**Author notes:**__**Finally! I really wanted to update this fic sooner but the beta-reader's computer broke down and I couldn't get the fic until today. So here is it, I hope that the long waiting did worth it.**_

**Anonymous reviews:**

_**Sturm and drang:**_** I needed the "heroes" to know what had happen and the best way that came to my mind was to make Shadow (the most related spirit with Luna) to give the information to them. And I'm glad to know that I'm doing a good job with the characters. And finally about the argument you mentioned between Shadow and Tenebrae… It has potential, maybe in a future chapter I could make it happen.**

* * *

**EPISODE 2: THE JOURNEY OF DEGENERATION.**

**Chapter 16: **

**Palmacosta**

Sheena sat aside Zelos on the couch. He looked comfortable and carefree with his eyes shut and his legs propped up over the table. Sheena knew she needed to apologize. She couldn't let go of the shame hanging over the last time she had spoken to him. He had been worried about her, and in return she had slapped him when he tried to protect her.

"I…" Sheena stopped and bit the inside of her cheek, unsure as to how she should continue.

"You are welcomed." Zelos replied. He didn't open his eyes.

Sheena swallowed. "Thank you. I should have listened to you when you said-"

"I already told you that you're welcome, you don't have to say anything."

"No! I still have to - I was being irrational. And I hit you when you were trying to help me. I'm really sorry."

"OK, OK…" Zelos sighed. "You're forgiven or whatever. Just give a kiss in the cheek to daddy." He tapped his cheek with one finger.

Sheena took a cushion and hit him in the face with it.

"Ow!"

"You're incorrigible!"

"Is that why you love me?" Zelos beamed at her in a fashion that he seemed to think was seductive.

Sheena took another cushion and hit him in the face with it.

"Ow- OK, maybe I deserved that one."

"You deserve all of them. I'm trying to be honest about myself and all you do is joke around as if nothing had happened."

"Why bother? What's done is done, and worrying about something you can't change won't get you anywhere. You already said you're sorry, so as long as you don't make the same mistake again, then there's no need to worry. It's just a waste of time."

Sheena bent her head and smiled.

"Thanks Zelos. I don't know how I-" But her sentence was cut off when the ex-Chosen hit her in the face with a cushion. "What the hell are you doing Idiot Chosen?"

"What am I doing?" Zelos waved his cushion as if it was a nunchaku. "You shouldn't start a war if you can't be sure that you'll win it."

"You are so dead now…" Sheena stood up with a cushion in one hand.

As they began to hit each other with the soft squares, Sheena smiled to herself. Zelos had always possessed the ability to make her forget about her problems but he did it in such a weird way that she could never tell if it was his intention to help her or if it was simply a consequence. But whatever it was, he always found the way to make the weight of her problems seem lighter.

Genis poked in his head into the room and made a face at the sight of them. "Could you please stop acting like kids?" He stared at them in annoyance. "You haven't changed at all in the last two years. If you keep going like that you'll -"

"WHAT! I'M GOING TO KILL HER!" Lloyd shouted from the kitchen.

"Never mind, looks like he's already woken up." Genis sighed.

"Damn! I should have known that she was behind the kidnapping." Lloyd had already picked up his swords and was heading for the door. "I'm going to the Mana Tower right now and when I find her, I'll make her pay for all she's done!"

Marta had only known Lloyd for a short time but she had never expected this level of anger from him. Worry over his friend, certainly, and righteous fury over her kidnapping, but somehow this went deeper. Alice had hit a nerve.

"Lloyd you have to try to calm down." Marta said.

"Calm down? I swear you, if she's singed a hair on Colette's head, I'm going to _kill_ her." Lloyd's voice was tight, focused, and cold, reflecting the look in his eyes.

"But - look, there's got to be an explanation."

"The only explanation is that the woman's a sadist who would kill her own mother for a piece of power. And I don't know about you but I'm going after her right now."

Lloyd opened the door to leave only to have Raine close it again.

"Lloyd! You need to think this through."

"What the hell's going on? Are you on that sadist's side or something?"

"We all care about Colette, but you can't let this blind your reason. Do you really think that they'll still be in the Mana Tower? You won't save Colette with this attitude." Raine shook her head. "We all want to help Colette but we have to think about our next move. I've already sent a letter to Regal and Presea, and I'm sure they will help us too."

Lloyd didn't seem very convinced but the explanation seemed to calm him.

"Fine. So what should we do now?"

"Given our current situation we should cover the other three temples." Tenebrae said.

"You're here too? I thought that this kind of stuff didn't bother the centurions or Ratatosk."

Tenebrae frowned.

"I'm happy to see you too Lloyd Irving Aurion." Tenebrae's sarcasm bit deep, making Lloyd twitch. "As you said, 'this kind of stuff doesn't bother us but this time Alice has gone too far. Aselia itself is at risk. And us, the Centurions, as servants of Lord Ratatosk, the great lord of the monsters and guardian of Aselia, must do whatever is necessary."

"What do you mean with 'do whatever is necessary'?" Marta asked, afraid that the answer would be the same as what floated in her mind.

"I see you haven't changed Lady Marta. You still think that she can change. But her actions only prove the contrary, that she has no intention to change. Getting rid of her would be a favor to the world."

"How can you say something like that after knowing all she's suffered? Life hasn't been fair to her. We only need to show her that the world isn't how she thinks it is. It isn't her fault, she's paranoid and scared, she still thinks that if she doesn't become powerful the world will ate her alive." Marta looked around trying to find some support in her companions, but no one seemed to agree. "For the love of the Goddess, I watched her shatter while she was dying next to the man she loves! She isn't a monster, she just needs help!" As she ran out of arguments she began to stutter. "She- she had no one growing up, and she-she-she…"

Emil embraced her as she began to cry over his shoulder.

"It'll be alright, Marta."

"I-I don't want to kill anyone. Not again…" She sobbed.

"I suppose that was a little cold. I'm sorry Marta," Tenebrae said. "Taking a life isn't easy. But you must understand that as a Centurion I can't ignore this situation. I don't know that girl, but I know what she did as a member of the Vanguard and I certainly know what's going to happen if we don't stop her. Alice has proven to be too dangerous -"

"No, Marta is right," Lloyd interrupted.

"What? You're the last one I'd expect to say that."

"I would be lying if I said that I don't want to beat the hell out of that selfish girl until my arms fall off. But I've never killed anyone in cold blood and I'm not going to start now. If we could give a second and a third chance to Mithos we can do it with Alice."

"What? Are you serious! This is unbelievable!" Tenebrae looked to the others for support against this absurd notion.

"He hasn't changed a single bit." Zelos laid a hand over his forehead and chuckled.

"You reminded me of Colette when you said all that. She wouldn't want anyone killed either. If we can solve this peacefully we will," Lloyd said to Marta

"I… Thank you Lloyd." The brunette replied.

Lloyd gave Marta a serious look. "But if she has done anything to Colette, I'm not holding back."

Marta looked surprised and was about to complain but then nodded. After all, that was why she tried to kill Alice in the Ginunngagap.

Tenebrae sighed.

"Well, I can't say that I agree with your methods. However as long as Aselia recovers the balance I don't care how you do it."

"It looks like he's matured a bit after all." Raine said to herself. "Each time he looks more like his father."

"Well, does anyone has any idea of how are we going to deal with this?" Tenebrae asked.

Everyone looked to each other for an idea but no one said a word until Genis rocketed to his feet. "I actually do have a plan."

All eyes went to the young half-elf. "We should divide in three groups and each group should take care of a seal."

"It's risky," Raine continued. "Decus and Alice aren't exactly amateurs. But we may not have any choice…"

"Sounds fine to me." Zelos declared, taking Sheena by the waist and bringing her close. "Sheena and I will go to the Seal of Wind."

"Wait what! I haven't even agree in-" Sheena's protest was interrupted by Emil.

"It's a good plan. Marta and I can go to the Fire Seal. Is alright, Marta?" She nodded.

"I'm coming with you, Emil." Tenebrae said.

"Is anybody listening to me!" Sheena complained, trying to get out of Zelos' embrace.

"Then the only one left is the Water Seal." Lloyd deducted. "I guess we should take care of it." He looked at Genis and Raine.

"I'm getting sick just thinking about it…" Raine put a hand over her forehead.

"We could switch!" Sheena shouted hopefully. "You could go with Zelos and I could go with Lloyd."

Genis looked a little crestfallen. "And me…"

"Oh! Yeah, yeah, and Genis too."

"No thank you Sheena, the only way to overcome your fears is by facing them." Raine looked determined.

Sheena sighed. She would have preferred to go with Lloyd.

"On the other hand…" Raine muttered. "I think I will stay in Palmacosta. Someone has to be here when Regal and Presea come here. Yeah… I think you both will be fine in the water temple without me. Good luck boys!" Raine cheered with a nervous smile as she left the living room leaving all her companions astonished.

* * *

**Lake Umazy**

Decus sat with his back against a tree, examining his hand. He shut his eyes and suddenly his hand was engulfed in purple flames. They didn't burn him.

He was surprised he could actually summon the flames with his own will, especially in such a short time. As far as he could remember, he had only been able to summon them in the heat of battle before now.

He touched the grass with his fiery hand to see what happened. The results horrified him: the grass didn't burn at all; instead it slowly withered as if the fire was sucking its life away.

"Hi Decus." Colette called, waving her hand and smiling.

Decus jumped. The swordsmen found himself trying to wave his hand and put it out on the grass at the same time.

"Oh, hey Colette! How- how are you?"

"Fine, thanks."

"Wait a minute… You aren't trying to escape are you? Because if you are I'll have to stop you. I don't want to hurt you but…"

"No, I can't escape…" Colette sighed sadly. "Nickolay told me that if I get more than five hundred meters from him the collar will give me an electric shock. I don't know how many feet are in five hundred meters but I don't want find out."

Decus nodded.

"What are you doing here anyway?" She asked. "You're too far away from Alice and the mad man."

"Nothing, nothing… Why do you suspect something? Like if I had discovered something that I didn't want anyone else to know? Haha- haha… Don't be silly." Decus laughed nervously.

"No… Why would I suspect anything? Are you trying to hide something?"

"No! Of course not." Decus held up his hands. "Can't we change the subject of this conversation? Not that I'm trying to avoid a subject though."

Colette regarded him suspiciously. He was the second worst liar she had ever met; the first, of course, being Lloyd. But she didn't want to dig any deeper, or else risk making him feel uncomfortable; and besides, he had offered her the perfect opportunity to talk to him.

"What do you think about the Cruxis Cristal?" Colette asked, instead of making her point directly.

"Why? Well, hmmm… I guess its fine. It's what Alice wants after all. And maybe once she becomes powerful enough she'll start to notice me." And then he began to day dream in a loud voice, losing track of the entire conversation. "And then we'll get married and start a new life in the outskirts of some town. I'll have a normal job like cook or dancer and then we might have two children, a boy and a girl. And we'll raise them with love, and they can have all the things that we didn't have in the orphanage. We would be happy, a normal family." He smiled at the sky.

"Eh… hmmm… Well, yeah, right." Colette didn't know how to respond, the blissful monologue had taken her completely by surprise. How was she supposed to answer to that?

"But aren't you worried about what could happen to Alice if she keeps the Cruxis Crystal?" She was more forward this time.

"Of course I'm worried, and that's why no matter what happens I'll be at her side, to support her and help her when she needs it," Decus declared.

"But what if you can't help her? Cruxis Crystals are very dangerous; she'll only get hurt. Can't you see she's obsessed with power?"

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm well aware of her obsession and I've tried many times to dissuade her. She has the right of being obsessed. There's no other way…"

"What are you talking about?"

"Do you think that anything changed after the orphanage?" Colette shook her head. "Well, things sure changed for me, I was a human, but for Alice… for her nothing changed. After leaving the orphanage nothing was different for Alice, she was still a half-elf. It didn't matter where we went, she was always looked down upon. In every town people hated her just for being alive and it didn't matter that she hadn't done anything to them. Everyone was disgusted by the sight of her." Decus sighed and looked down. "No one would sell food or offer shelter to her or me for being friends with a half-elf. Do you know what it's like to go hungry for months? Being homeless on a cold night? Be sick and not having any doctor to help you?" Decus locked his blue eyes on hers. "It isn't fun, I can swear to that. So we did the only thing we could do, we stole and broke into buildings and did whatever was necessary to survive. And to be able to survive in a world filled with monsters-" Colette shuddered at the mention of the monsters, knowing he was talking about humans, "-you need to be more powerful than them. That's why even if I don't want her to be obsessed with power I support her choices."

Colette didn't know what to say. It looked like nothing she could say would change his mind.

"Maybe you're right…" She wasn't convinced. "But do you think this is the right way to do it? That there's no other way?"

"I wish there was another way…"

"There are other ways Decus! Just because-"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Alice shouted, coming from behind a bush.

Colette jumped. She hadn't noticed that Alice had been peeking at them.

"ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE MY PET BETRAY ME!" Alice pointed threateningly at Colette with her rapier.

"Alice, I swear this isn't what it seems, we were just-" Alice cut off Decus's protests.

"Did I say you could talk? Then shut up!"

That was more than what Colette could handle.

"How can you treat him like that? He's a person too!" Decus shook his head at her and tried to motion to her to be quiet, but it didn't work. "You can't treat people like that!"

"No! _You_ can't treat people like that because you are weak, but I can!"

"Just because you have to power to do it doesn't mean you should!"

"You… Where do you get the guts to speak to me like that? I'm afraid that you have forgotten our positions, you are the pet and I am the master. And now I will have to discipline you so you don't forget the nature of our relationship."

Colette closed her eyes when Alice lifted her toy rapier with a sadistic smile. But before she was able to whip her face Nickolay caught and held the rapier with his hand.

"What are you doing?" Alice struggled to get the whip back. "This has nothing to do with you! She needs to know who's in charge."

"We've talked about hurt my experimental subjects. I need her in perfect conditions." Nickolay said.

"Oh don't worry about it; I swear you'll get it back in one piece, it'll just be with a few wounds and broken bones. Nothing that can't be healed." Alice spoke with a sweet smile that showed her fangs.

"I'm afraid that I can't allow that. I need her in _perfect condition_. We had a deal, don't you remember? I will help you and in exchange you wouldn't damage her." Nickolay anticipated to her reply. "There are other methods to discipline her."

Colette looked frightened when he pulled up the sleeve of his lab coat to reveal an electronic bracelet. Without any explanation Nickolay pressed a button in the bracelet and instantly an electric discharge crossed Colette's body who shuddered in pain.

"See… this way we punish her behavior without damaging her body."

Alice bit her lip like a child who had found a new toy.

"Can I use it? Please, please, please..." Alice begged like a little girl. "I promise I won't hurt her too much."

"Of course, I modified it to inflict great amounts of pain without damaging her in any way."

Alice took the bracelet and kept the button pressed for ten long seconds, and after a little break to let Colette catch her breath, she repeated the process over and over again. Each scream of pain gave Alice a rush of sadistic pleasure enhanced by the sight of the blonde's squirming and crying on the ground.

"Stop it please! Stop it!" Colette begged and she looked to Decus for help. He just looked away.

Alice just pressed the button again.

"See… Decus doesn't care about whatever happens to you. He's mine and only mine."

"Really? You want me for you and only for you? So you're doing this because you are jealous," he said.

"What! Where did you get that dumb idea? This has nothing to do with you. I'm doing this to show our little friend what happens when she-talks-back-to-me!" With each word she gave her a discharge.

"I think she's learned her lesson," Nickolay said, taking away the bracelet from Alice.

"Is not fair! I wanted to play a little more…" The blonde pouted.

"There is no time for this. We have to go back to the camp and get ready for the next temple."

"True! Let's go Dumbo-Decus."

"But what about Colette? Are we going to leave her there? We need her to open the seals and she can't walk." Decus pointed at Colette, showing more concern than Alice liked.

"Oh, don't worry about her." Nickolay said as he walked away. "The physical effects will be over in a few minutes, and then she will be able to walk again."

"I… Well, I guess is fine then."

And Decus left, following Alice and Nickolay, looking Colette over his shoulder one last time before accelerating his steps to catch his beloved and the mad scientist.

* * *

**Altamira**

The infamous Captain Aifread's ship was docked in Altamira's port between a fleet of private yachts, with their rich owners drinking fine wines and eating expensive foods on the decks.

"Don't you have a bottle of rum? I'm completely dry!" Aifread called, trying to get the attention of the people eating in the yachts aside. When they completely ignored him he just looked aside and muttered, "You're too good for me, huh? Well, your wife is a total milf and she doesn't stop looking at me, maybe I could give some happiness to her in exchange of rum."

"I'm sorry sir but you will have to leave this place. This is a private dock and you are disturbing our tenants." One of the bunny girls attending the dock spoke politely, but there was an edge to her voice that indicated she was not pleased with his choice of phrase. On the deck of the nearest yacht, a woman hid her flushed face in her hands while her husband scowled at Aifread.

"Yeah, well I have to… Woah! You sure are a hot babe. Do you want to go to see cargo compartment of my boat?" He winked at her, thinking this made him look flirtatious.

"Leonard, Jax! Please accompany this man to his boat."

Suddenly two muscular seven feet tall man with white pants, white and open shirts and sunglasses approached to Aifread with unfriendly intentions.

"Whoa, whoa, alright… There's no need to get violent here." He started backing up as the guys came closer. "Look I came here to give a letter to someone called Regal Bryant. A white haired woman told me I should give it to him personally."

The two men took the pirate by his shoulders and started dragging him to his boat when the woman stopped them by lifting her right hand.

"Did you say Regal Bryant?"

"Yes, yes, that's exactly what I said." As Aifread spoke, he winced at the tight grips on his shoulders.

The bunny girl activated a device around her ear and began to talk to someone.

"So… What's it like, living here?" Aifread asked to the guys holding him. "It must be great uh… A nice beach, hot women everywhere and you get paid for it." Neither of them answered him.

"OK… hmmm… Fine, I'll tell him." She turned back to Aifread. "Miss Presea has said that she will escort you to Mr. Bryant's office. You can put him down, boys."

"Did you listen to the hottie? You can release me, muscle heads."

The two looked to each other and nodded in agreement. Then they released him simultaneously and punched him hard on both shoulders.

"Ow… So that's how you treat your clients!" He shouted as they left. "I'll find a complaint form and make sure the office know about this! You two will be out on your butts before I can say rum!"

"Aifread?" A pink haired girl had walked onto the dock without him noticing, and stood at him elbow.

"Indeed, the unique and unmatched. Wait a moment! I know you… You're one of the friends of that brown haired idiot aren't you?"

"My name is Presea Combatir and if you are talking about Lloyd, yes, we are friends." Her expression remained emotionless. "Now follow me before you get into more trouble." And without further words Presea walked away without waiting for his response.

Aifread rushed to Presea's side and followed her to the casino.

"I see you're a girl of few words… I've always preferred that." He struggled to keep up with her pace while holding a one sided conversation. "Not that I want anything from with you… No, no, no… Well, not because you aren't cute but it's illegal. Maybe in a few years…" He interrupted himself when an attractive and voluptuous blonde bunny girl passed him.

"Eyes up front!" Presea commanded.

"Yeah, yeah, I was just checking the goods. And they are really good, if I might add."

Presea and Aifread entered the casino. The place was filled with rich people playing with their money and couples on vacations having fun. However the thing that caught his attention were the girls dressed in red shiny bikinis with bunny ears serving drinks.

"For all the advertising as being family friendly this place is quite adult focused. Though I wouldn't mind to spend some money on one of those girls…" One of the bunny girls smiled at him and waved her fingers. "Or maybe two… or three… I can see why this place is so famous."

"The door has opened. Enter."

"Sorry - what? I was busy enjoying the scenery." He followed the curvaceous shapes of two bunny girls with his eyes and made a grabbing motion as he bit his lower lip.

Presea sighed and dragged effortlessly Aifread into the elevator.

"Ow- My arm… You're pretty strong for your size."

"The Desians experimented on me." Her voice was serious, but unconcerned as she stared straight ahead at the elevator doors.

"Oh… Hmmm…I see, I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry about. There is nothing you could have done."

"Oh, no, no, no!" Aifread waved his hands. "What I meant is that I'm sorry for all you've been through, I guess."

"Oh. In that case, thanks." She replied stoically.

Aifread wanted to reply but decided not to. The whole situation was already too awkward. The intense silence between them was much more comfortable for him than talking with the girl.

The elevator dinged. "We are here," she said.

Aifread followed Presea into Bryant's office and didn't enter until Presea told him so.

"Aifread?" Regal was surprised enough to ignore the paperwork on his desk.

"Yes! It looks like my reputation precedes me. I can sign you an autograph for fifty hundred gald if you want. I'll be worth millions in a few years, I swear it!"

"What are you doing here? I'm a busy man."

Aifread looked at Regal's thick muscles and nodded.

"I can see why. I have only muscles in my right arm because I spend all the day-" Aifread saw Presea looking at him and immediately changed the end of his bragging. "-fishing in my boat."

"I thought you were going to say jerking off." Presea said casually. Aifread's jaw dropped.

"You haven't replied to my answer yet. Why are you here?" Regal asked again.

Aifread shook his head and handed Regal the letter.

"A half-elf woman with white hair told me to give this to you as fast as possible."

"Raine? Let me see that."

Regal tore the envelope with a letter opener. Aifread couldn't help but laugh to himself at the sight of such a strong and muscular man opening a letter with that tiny tool.

"Oh, and she also told me that you would pay for the delivery," Aifread noted casually.

As Regal read the letter his worried expression became more and more accentuated.

"Presea, get your axe."

"You know what? There's no need to pay me now, we can leave this for another day." Aifread said, walking backwards slowly.

"What are you talking about?" Regal wrinkled his forehead. "Oh… No, no. Don't worry about that. I was talking to Presea about something completely different. How much is it?"

Aifread sighed in relieve and began to counting on his fingers.

"I take two and… Fifty thousand gald!"

"What!"

"Well, you have to pay the quick delivery, the night time travel, the risks of sea travel, the food, the fuel…"

"I have no time for this." Regal opened a desk drawer and handle the pirate a wad of cash. The pirate took it and began to count the money.

"Regal, what's going on?" Presea asked.

"Colette has been kidnapped by Alice and Decus. The rest of the details are in the letter." He handed it to her for her perusal.

"This time I will cut the head of the snake," she said once she was finished, crumpling the letter in one hand without any change in expression.

Regal bent over his intercom. "Kristy, prepare my boat. We're leaving as soon as possible."

"I'm afraid that it will be impossible. Your boat has been heavily damaged in dock, some drunk rich idiot collided with it."

Regal frowned and looked at Aifread who was studying the shelves as if it had nothing to do with him.

"What! Don't look at me. She said, a _'rich' _drunk, idiot. Do I look rich to you? I should leave anyway."

Regal sighed, dissatisfied with the answer but decided to leave it there. He had no time to argue with him.

"Can't we use any other boat?" He asked to the secretary.

"Impossible, Mr. Bryant. The rest of the boats have already sailed with their passengers. The soonest arrival will not be for another sixteen hours."

"Damn it!"

"Well… Guess who has a free boat?" Aifread said, smiling to himself.

"How much will it be?" Regal asked.

"Well, given the urgency of the situation, I'll do it for free." The pirate was smiling.

"What! Really?"

"Of course, what kind of person would I be if I asked for fee in such a situation?"

"Well, thank you. Let's go, there's no time to lose."

"However!" Aifread shouted when Presea was about to open the door of the office. "If you could give me one of those rum bottles as a gift for my selfless efforts I would appreciate it."

Regal sighed when he saw the bottles Aifread was pointing at. He sure had a good taste for rum.

"That bottle is valued at more than five hundred thousand gald!" Regal complained. "Damn it, fine! Here is it. Take it. And now let's go to Palmacosta!"

Aifread took the bottle of rum with a grin.

"You are in charge boss, to Palmacosta!" Aifread opened the bottle of rum ready to give it a gulp but Presea seized his arm before he could drink.

"The captain can't drink while he sails." She said coldly.

"But- but…" Presea's emotionless gaze was enough to convince him otherwise "Fine… To Palmacosta, boo-yah." He finished sarcastically in a bored voice.

* * *

_**Author notes: I hope you all liked how I developed Aifread's character, since he was never fully developed in the game I had to do it myself. **_

**Reviews whether are for support, give new ideas or critic my fics are always appreciated. Your support is what has keep me writing. Thank you to all the readers and reviewers. See you with a new chapter the next month.**


	17. Sylph?

**Author notes:**** I'm happy for all the reviews I got and I'm really ashamed that this chapter took me so much to update. On my defense I will say that I had to write it twice because I didn't like it at first. The good thing is that I have already written 2,000 words of the next chapter and that I might be able to do a **_**fast**_** update.**

_**Anonymous Reviews:**_

_**Sturm and drang:**_** I don't think I have gotten Decus character down, remember that he was the guy who despite being the leader or the espionage division he used a cologne that could be smelt miles away and the one who got scammed over and over again (The cologne, the work out machine, the Iron-Maiden), he just seem to fit in the bad liars character list. I don't think that Decus is an idiot he just seems a little naïve (not as much as Colette though).**

**And right now Aqua (along with the rest of summon spirits) is helping Ratatosk and Richter to hold the mana seal that keeps the Demons in their kingdom.**

**And your prediction was RIGHT!**

**(…)**

**Now that the fic, enjoy it.**

* * *

**EPISODE 2: THE JOURNEY OF DEGENERATION.**

**Chapter 17: Sylph?**

**Balacruf Mausoleum**

"So this is the famous Balacruf Mausoleum." Decus lifted his eyes to the top of the ziggurat. "Meh… How disappointing, it's just a bunch of ruins, I was expecting something as cool as the Tower of Mana. But this is just a pile of rocks." He kicked a stone and kept walking with his hands in the pockets.

"These ruins are not here to make you happy. They exist to make me more powerful! The seal is on top of the ziggurat, right?" After waiting five seconds and get no answer, Alice became impatient and glared at the Chosen. "Hello Colettie? I asked you if the seal is on top of the ziggurat!"

Colette gulped nervously. "Ye-yeah, is in the top Alice."

"Hmmm… I didn't hear '_mistress'_ in that phrase. You're making me sad and you don't want me to be sad do you?" Alice pouted.

"I'm sorry Mistress Alice." Colette replied.

Alice smiled satisfied.

"Aww… You're so cute when you're afraid that it makes me want to beat you just to see that lovely face that you put when you cry." The sadist said blissfully. "Could you cry a little for me Colettie? It would make this moment so wonderful if you did."

(…)

_**A few hours before:**_

"_You are as arrogant as Mart-Mart. You know nothing about life, but you still dare to criticize me and try to change me as if I needed some kind of salvation. You disgust me! How can you understand what having power means? You're just a spoiled brat who got everything she wanted out of life. But in the real world you need power to survive; if you have power no one will hurt you, if you have power you can do whatever you want!"_

_Colette __looked at the ground but Alice took her chin and forced her to look into Alice's eyes._

"_No… But you already __knew that didn't you?" Alice asked as she clawed her nails down Colette's cheeks. "Of course you did, you're just__ like your friends, a hypocrite with delusions of grandeur who can't __see through her own lies. You changed the world didn't you, you are the Chosen after all, and how did you go about it? How__ did you defeat the Vanguard? How did you defeat Richter? With words, or by force?"_

_Alice saw __that the blonde was too scared to reply and normally this would please her, but that wasn't enough this time. She wanted her to be disgusted with herself._

"_Answer me. And be __sincere or I'll electrocute you__ again."_

"_By-by force." Colette stuttered._

"_And those who opposed you, what you did with them, you killed them __didn't you?"_

_Colette nodded._

"_Yeah, they were weak so you could kill them and __impose yourselves on them__. And yet you criticize me for wanting to be more powerful! Your hypocrisy makes me want to puke!"_

_Colette fell on her kneel and began to cry, Alice was right, they had killed hundreds just to do what they thought it was right and justified their actions with moral._

_Alice smiled __proudly at the result of her game._

"_You have been a bad girl Colettie, but don't __worry: as my pet your bad behavior will be disciplined." Alice tapped the whip on her hand while circling Colette. She now had Colette exactly where she wanted._

"_If you talk without my permission, I will punish you! If you do anything without my permission, I will punish you! if you disobey me, I will punish you!" Alice stood quiet for a second and began to smile. "And of course, as my pet, I might punish you just for fun."_

_(…)_

"Well, then it'll be easy: we just have to fly to the top of the ziggurat and it's done," Alice said as she prepared herself to summon Aramis.

"I'm afraid that it won't work," Nickolay interrupted. "The top of the mausoleum is engulfed with hurricane-like winds. The seal is in the middle so any attempt to reach the top by flying would end in disaster. We'll have to travel through the mausoleum."

"Why can't things be easy only for once…?" Alice sighed.

"And if that wasn't bad enough the inside of the temple is a labyrinth full of traps and riddles."

"Don't worry my dear Alice! I thought we might come across this problem and prepared for it."

"You did?" Nickolay asked.

"Of course! I bought a map from a man I found coming here. I had to pay ten thousand gald to buy it but it was worth it." Decus took out the aforementioned map. "There was another guy about to buy it for nine thousand gald but I made him an offer that he couldn't refuse."

"You did what!" Nickolay cried, unable to believe what he was hearing.

"I know, I know, you don't need to thank me. It was a lot of money but it'll be a good solution."

Alice face-palmed. "You are an idiot Dumbo-Decus. How can anyone sell you a map of the Mausoleum if no one aside of the Chosen has entered in more than a thousand years?"

"Wait a minute!" Decus put up a hand. "Are you implying that I have been scammed again?"

"Yes you dumbo!"

"But how? Was it the other guy who wanted to buy it?"

"He was the bait, you idiot! You fell in the oldest trick of the book!" Alice's voice was a mixture of shame and anger as she tried to hide her face in her hat.

"I-I- I don't know what to say. I thought it was for real!"

"Whatever, it isn't my money... I'm going to keep going." Nickolay interrupted.

The pink haired scientist took Colette by the wrist and entered in the temple.

"Wait for me Nicky!" Alice shouted running after the scientist and leaving Decus outside.

Decus bit his lower lip in shame as he watched Alice forget about him. Maybe it was just his imagination but the pink-haired scientist and Alice seemed to have become closer. The envy was killing him. If only he were a half-elf too Alice would trust him and everything would be different. And maybe it was because of his jealousy but he didn't like Nickolay. He simply couldn't be trusted.

"Are you going to come inside or have you forgotten how to walk?" Alice poked her head outside for a moment before retreating inside again.

Decus' heart jumped with joy and he followed her inside. "Of course my dear! For a moment I thought that you had forgotten me!"

Alice rolled her eyes and waited for him before entering in the building. Yeah, it must have been the jealousy.

"Be careful, the Balacruf Mausoleum is a very dangerous place." Nickolay warned as they walked.

"Why? It has monsters?" Alice asked casually while she watched the ruins and the engravings that decorated the corridors.

"Don't worry about the monsters, my dear heart. Your brave knight Decus will kill any creature that tries to harm you." Decus took his sword from the Iron-Maiden and got in a defensive stance in front of Alice.

"Actually this place has no monsters." Nickolay passed Decus' without looking at him.

"Then why is this place so dangerous?" Alice asked, ignoring Decus and passing his other side.

Decus stood still for a few seconds before sighing in defeat.

"Actually the fact that this place has no monsters is what it makes it so dangerous! If a place has monsters, it's because they can live in it. Otherwise the structure is completely inhabitable." Nickolay explained. "The reason why the Balacruf Mausoleum is known as the most dangerous place on Sylvarant is because it's filled with deadly traps that would kill even the most skilled tomb raider. A misstep in the wrong place and hundreds of poisoned darts could shoot from the walls, ensuring your slow and painful death."

Decus was paying so much attention to Nickolay's explanation that he didn't notice the tile that protruded over the floor.

"Watch out! You're going to get all of us killed!" Nickolay shouted, dragging Decus backwards from the jacket.

"What?"

"Look at that." Nickolay pointed at the suspicious tile. "If you put any pressure on this tile the floor might open under us so that we fall onto hundreds of sharpened stakes, or maybe it could activate a magic trap that would make those statues shoot a deadly lightning bolt from its eyes that would disintegrate us!"

"Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy!" A young kid shouted as she passed them by, running over the tile and turning at the corner at the end of the corridor.

The three looked stunned the scene. What was a ten year old kid doing in the Balacruf Mausoleum? They decided to investigate and walked to the corner, poking their heads around it.

"And in this drawing you can see how our forefathers worshiped the Protector Spirits of wind, Sephie, Yutis and Fairess who together are referred here as Sylph." A woman explained to a group of people of different ages.

"Mommy, mommy, mommy! Look what I found." The kid happily shouted handing something to her mother.

"Please dear, be careful! Don't leave the group!" The tour guide cried.

"Where did you go? I didn't see you leave." The woman said in surprise. "Wasn't daddy supposed to look after you?" She sent a deadly gaze to her husband who gulped and loosened the neck of the shirt.

Alice, Decus and Nickolay hide on the other side of the corner.

"So this was a dangerous place filled with deadly traps that not even the most skilled tomb raider could dodge…" Alice mocked in a singsong voice. "This place is filled with people! The Balacruf Mausoleum is nothing but a tourist attraction for the people who travel to Asgard!" She snarled in a low voice.

Decus began to chuckle.

"I- I don't know what happened, it must have changed while I was in imprisoned in Meltokio. I guess that after the Chosen's journey they deactivated the traps and made it a tourist attraction to attract more people." The scientist said.

"Thanks for stating the obvious; I hadn't thought anyone here noticed it." Alice replied sarcastically.

"So what we do now?" Decus asked. "I guess we have to wait until this group leaves."

"Hell no!" Alice said. "I haven't come this far to wait for some group of idiots to leave!"

"Well, we can't just go on with a kidnapped Chosen without making a show." Decus protested.

"Can't we?"

A few minutes later they walkedinto the room, making a point to look casual as they looked at the drawings on the walls.

"If you try anything, I'll tell Decus to kill them all, and we both know he'll do it," Alice threatened. "Oh! And don't forget to smile!" She gave the Chosen a sweet expression to make her point.

The group went unnoticed through the chamber and passed the group of tourists without notice. Everything was going smoothly until a security guard stepped between them and the corridor that lead to the Seal of Wind.

"I'm sorry but I'm afraid that you can't go this way. This place is restricted to authorized personnel only." As the guard spoke, he stopped Alice by taking hold of her shoulder.

Alice looked at him with a cold gaze. Colette could see the blonde tightening the grip over her rapier as small sparks began to surround the whip.

"Don't touch me." Alice threatened.

"How you dare to touch her without permission! I won't let you take advantage of my dear beloved!" Decus was about to open the Iron-Maiden when Colette interrupted the impending catastrophe. If Decus took out his sword the guard would only be the first victim.

"They're with me!" Colette shouted putting herself between the guard and Decus. "I'm the Chosen of Sylvarant and I… I… I order you to stand aside or the goddess Martel will punish you!" Colette tried to look menacing.

"Look, it's the Chosen one!" An old man said.

In less time than a mewz escapes they were surrounded by an uncomfortable group of curious people who wanted to ask the Chosen questions.

"And I thought that getting impaled in stakes was the worst thing that could happen to in this place," Nickolay sighed, trying to keep his vital personal space.

"Well, what about going into the seal chamber?" Alice inquired.

The guard bowed and stepped aside, leaving the path free.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you were with the Chosen. If there is anything else I can do just tell me."

"Yeah, well, don't let it happen again." Alice said sweetly lifting the guard's chin with the tip of the whip.

"What are you doing?" He demanded, grabbing the whip.

Alice looked furious: obviously this man had no idea who he was dealing with.

"What you think you are doing!" Colette demanded, coloring her voice with outrage. "She's with me, and threatening her is like threatening the Chosen herself! I should punish you just for that but I won't if you leave right now!"

Everyone looked shocked at Colette, unable to believe what they had just heard. But if someone was surprised of what she was doing that person was Colette herself. The reaction went completely against the Chosen's reputation.

"And- And what are you looking at!" Colette shouted nervously at the tourists trying to sound threatening. "All of you leave this place before I change my mind!"

The tourists began to leave with unhappy faces and murmuring cold comments about the girl: "Let's go I don't want to be seen with this girl." "Yeah, she's become so arrogant." "What did you expect? Once they become popular they think they have the right to do anything…"

Colette sighed in relief, she couldn't believe what she had just done. These people might hate her now but at least they would be safe from Alice for now.

The blonde half-elf began to clap as the people left.

"Nice job Colettie… I didn't know you had guts to do that. And that speech, well done, well done." Alice seemed pleased but suddenly grabbed Nickolay's arm and used his device to electrocute the Chosen. "But when did I ask you for help? Do you think I can't defend myself? Is that it? Do you think I'm weak? Is that what you think?"

Nickolay took away the device before the Chosen, who was now shaking on the ground, suffered another shock.

"Calm down! You're going to leave her unconscious. She won't be any use if she can't close the seal."

"_I'm_ calm, but she was a bad pet," Alice pouted. "I just wanted to teach my pet to not to bark to people, she's been mean and scared everyone. She needed to be punished." She stated this as if it were obvious.

"Regardless of what you think, she did us a favor. Now we don't have to deal with onlookers while we work with the seal."

"Meh… as if any of those people could stop me." Alice bragged crossing her arms lifting the head nonchalantly. "And what about you Colettie? Are you going to lay on the ground all the day?"

Colette groaned as she tried to stand, but her muscles were still shaking and numb for the electric discharge and she couldn't get to her feet.

"Stop whimpering as if it hurt and stand up before I give you a real reason to cry."

Realizing that the Chosen didn't have force to stand up by herself, Decus grasped her arm and lifted her up.

"Th-thanks!" Colette managed to say between coughs.

"It was nothing."

"What do you think you are doing?" Alice snarled.

"Well, she obviously couldn't stand by herself so I helped her! We can't lose any more time."

"You always ruin all the fun Dumbo-Decus." Alice pouted. "Well, let's move on."

The group began to walk but they quickly noticed that Colette wasn't following them. When they turned back they saw her trying to walk while leaning against the wall for support.

"That's it! I'm tired of you and your pathetic victim act_._ I'll give you an incentive to make you move faster!" Alice lifted the rapier but Nickolay took it before she could land the strike and looked at her coldly.

"Remember our deal."

"Gosh. Fine!" Alice grumbled lowering her weapon. "Decus, take her with us!"

"Faster than the speed of light!"

"Pfft… As if something like that was even possible." Nickolay let out an arrogant snort and shut his eyes. "If you surpassed the speed of light you would go to the pass making your effort to carry Colette to some point useless in this space-time line."

"Are you coming or are you going to keep bragging pedantically?" Decus asked already going upstairs with Colette over his shoulder.

"What..! How! You-you were here a second ago. How did he do it?"

"He was faster than the speed of light." Alice answered nonchalantly.

Nickolay made an unamused noise, as if the one thing he hated was an inferior mind mocking him.

On the top of the Mausoleum the wind blew hard from multiple directions, becoming a serious annoyance and even making travel difficult for anyone trying to get to the top of the ziggurat. Decus wasn't having many problems walking thanks to the extra weight of Colette and the Iron-Maiden but the same couldn't be said for Alice, who was trying to hold her hat in place with one hand as she used the free hand to shield her face from the wind.

"Release Colette so she can- eh? Wait! No! No! My hat! My hat!"

The blonde half-elf began to chase the hat but the wind lifted it out of her reach and eventually away from ziggurat. All Alice could do was look on as her hat disappeared into the trees.

"Damn! My hat! I hate this pace!" Alice shouted, hitting the ground with a childish stamp of her foot.

"Don't worry my dear I will recover it for you!" Decus said cheerfully and carelessly dropped Colette on the ground.

As anyone who has read enough princess tales knew there was no better way to prove one's worth and win the heart of a beloved than to recover a lost token. Unfortunately for him, neither was he a knight in shining armor nor was she a lovely princess in distress. Nevertheless, Decus ran to get the hat, hoping this would be rewarded with a kiss when Alice pulled him out of dreamland by grabbing his ponytail, dragging him to a halt.

"-Ow!"

"Priorities, Dumbo-Decus. First we deal with this seal and then you can spend all the time you want looking for my hat," Alice said.

Decus put a hand over his chest and the other over his forehead, as if he was about to faint.

"Oh! Of course Alice, I'm terribly sorry, it just pained my heart so much to see you disappointed! I almost forgot about what we came here!"

"Whatever…" Alice sighed and rolled her eyes. "C'mon Colette, do what you must. Unless you want Decus to make a visit to the tourists, of course." She let out a sadistic chuckle.

Colette summoned the three spirits of wind knowing it only delayed the inevitable. She knew that when Alice got what she wanted more innocents would suffer, but at the moment all she could do was try to win more time.

When Colette finished the angelic chant the seal began to shine furiously and the wind began to blow even harder. Its strength threw Colette and Nickolay to the ground and Alice would have fallen too if Decus hadn't caught her. Though, as soon as the wind stopped, Decus was the one who fell to the floor, a red handprint on his cheek.

The three spirits of wind had appeared. They looked like fairies from a children's story. They resembled fifteen years old girls with butterfly wings on their backs.

Sephie, the one who looked like the oldest of the three, carried a broad sword that was as big as she was. Yutis looked more serious and was armed with a purple longbow, though curiously, possessed no quiver or arrows. Finally, Fairess, who seemed to be the youngest, only had an enormous shield that could cover her completely.

"Look, it's Colette! Hi there, Colette!" Fairess beamed at the Chosen. "Did you come to talk with us? Why you just didn't tell Sheena to summon us? And who are your new friends?"

Colette looked in shame at the green stones under her feet. "I'm sorry, girls."

"Why are you so sad?" Fairess asked.

"She just feels bad for doing this," Alice explained, pouting and pinching the blonde's cheek.

"What does your friend mean, Colette?"

"Be careful Fairess! That girl isn't her friend," Yutis warned. "Just look at Colette's face!"

"Oh no! Did they do anything mean to you, Colette?"

"Don't be worried about Colettie, I'll be nice to her as long as she's useful to me. However I can't say the same about you." Alice smiled sweetly as her voice became more and more vicious. "You will share Luna's fate. I have come here to kill all of you - no hard feelings, I hope."

"Are you the one who caused the disturbance in the mana torrents!" Sephie shouted. "You idiot! You have no idea of what you're doing!"

Decus opened his Iron-Maiden, took out his sword and pointed it menacingly at the older spirit.

"How you dare to insult my beloved! You, little lady, have become my number one target!"

"Shut up Dumbo-Decus, I can handle this myself," Alice ordered. "I know what this is all about and I'm tired of it. You'll start with talking about how wrong I am, I'll defend my position, and then you'll try to change my mind. But I won't, because I'm determined to reach my goals. So what if we just skip all the moralistic crap that you're about to vomit up and start the fight?"

"Fine with me! I can't wait to stomp in your spoiled brat face." Sephie shouted.

"Careful Sephie, they defeated Luna and Aska! They can't be taken lightly." Yutis warned.

"Then it'll be just like old times!" Sephie almost seemed delighted. "Are you ready Fairess?" The younger spirit nodded. "Are you ready Yutis?"

"Let's finish this!" She replied.

"Then let's take our true form! We will become Sylph once again!"

The three fairies formed a pyramid and three beams of green light linked them together, creating a triangle of light as they began to recite a spell in an unknown language. Their bodies glowed while a circle filled with runes surrounded the triangle.

Decus and Alice looked each other. Alice raised an eyebrow and Decus shrugged.

The blonde aimed at Yutis with her rapier and prepared to cast _A Season in Hell_.

"Yeah, sure, like I was going to stay quiet while you finished that." Alice threw a thunder bolt at Yutis, knocking her down and interrupting the fusion spell.

"Yutis!" Fairess shouted, flying to help her sister.

"Fairess, don't drop your guard!" Sephie warned, going after her.

"What?"

But it was already too late for Fairess. Decus fell on her with a deadly blow that dissolved her into thousands of mana particles.

"Bastard! I'll kill you!"

"Your attempt will only prove my worthiness to my beloved!"

Both of them charged, Sephie's sword surrounded by a furious twister of wind and Decus' in purple flames. Their swords collided in a brutal slam, their pure strength holding each other in place. After a few seconds Decus realized he was being overpowered: Sephie had incredible strength despite her childish appearance. Decus aimed at her side and hit her face twice with two quick punches. While she recovered from the attack he tried to cut her in half, buts he managed to get away with a cut on her stomach.

"Damn! That was a dirty trick." Sephie panted and covered the wound with her hand.

"This fight isn't for honor but for love! And everything goes in the name of love," Decus claimed.

"What are you talking about! This fight is for the fate of the world!"

"Maybe for you, but all I care about is about Alice's well being, and as far as I'm concerned your death will make her happier. If she is happy, everything is perfect in my world."

Sephie looked into the swordsman eyes; they only reflected his incorruptible determination, a determination that could make the world fall apart.

"I can't let you live!"

Sephie screamed and attacked again, but her movements had become slower and more predictable because of the wound what. Decus parried the attack effortlessly and kicked her in the stomach, exacerbating the injury. The fight lasted long enough that the pain made defense impossible and Sephie could no longer hold her sword.

"Damn…" She coughed. "You are a fool! Don't you understand the consequences of your actions? How can the love of one person them!"

Decus raised his sword over her kneeling figure. "My sword will answer for me." And Sephie was no more.

Yutis crawled to her bow and reached for it but a yellow shoe stomped on her hand. The summon spirit lifted her eyes and saw Alice looking at her with a morbid smile.

"Bitch!" Yutis muttered.

Alice kicked her in the mouth and sent her rolling backwards.

"Did I hurt you? I'm so sorry; I thought you had something in your mouth." Alice pouted with fake concern.

"You won't get what you want!" The spirit panted, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

Alice kicked her in the stomach, making her cough.

"And just who is going to stop me? You?" She asked as she kicked her. "Decus! Come here! And you Colettie, don't miss this."

"What do you want, my dear?"

Alice whispered something in Decus' ear. He looked disgusted for a moment but as expected, agreed to do as he was told.

"You know… Luna was a real nuisance. That self-centered spirit ended along with my patience." Alice said. Decus pushed the summon spirit to the ground with his feet. "And after all she did to me I really wished I could have made her suffer." Decus took both of the spirit's wings in his hands. "But she died before I could enjoy myself." Alice knelt in front of her and smiled. "So now I'll get some relief from you. Please, scream for me. Do it Decus."

Decus began pulling on her wings, keeping her in place with one foot on her back. The summon spirit began to scream and cry as her wings were pulled away. Finally Decus managed to tear them out completely. Alice pulled her head up by her hair to face Colette.

"Look at this Colettie. This is what happens to those who oppose me."

Colette watched, terrified, as Alice mercilessly whipped the summon spirit and cast an electrical spell on her. The blonde looked away and closed her eyes to avoid the grotesque spectacle but could not ignore the screams.

Once Alice was satisfied she put away the whip and let the smoking body explode into mana particles as soon as it touched the floor. The wind seal faded away and a small earthquake followed it.

* * *

**Balacuf Mausoleum, first floor.**

"Please calm down! Don't run!" The tourist guide called to the tourists. "Follow the guard to the exit!"

In the middle of the chaos a rock broke off and fell towards a child, his mother looking on helplessly. Suddenly a purple figure appeared from nowhere and dragged the child out of harm's way.

"Oh, for the love of Martel, thank you, thank you!"

Sheena handed the kid to his mother's embrace, wearing a reassuring smile. When the mother was gone, she stood up looking more serious.

"Damn! I'm afraid of the worst."

"Yeah, this looks pretty bad," Zelos agreed.

The pair ran into the building, heading to the top of the ziggurat.

"Hey you two! Where are you going? The exit is the other way!" The guide shouted.

"Don't worry; we're professionals, we know what we're doing!" Zelos shouted. "Take everyone outside of the building and we'll take care of this problem."

And with those words the pair disappeared up the stairs.

* * *

**Author note: Did anyone think for a moment that they would let Sylph to become one? I always have wondered why people let their enemies become stronger or fulfill stupidly powerful attacks that take a lot of time to be performed? Why not bang them while they are performing it? **

**Well, see you as soon as possible with a new chapter, I hope that this delay doesn't discourage you for reviewing the fic. Because if it does Alice might want to have a "friendly" chat with you.**


	18. Fight in Balacruf Mausoleum

**Author notes: I know I said I was going to give you all a fast update, however I didn't know that the college exams were from the last half of the past month until the first half of this month so my beta-reader was unable to edit a fic that in other way would have been updated 15 days ago. **

**Before I begin with the Anonymous reviews I must tell you that my college exams begin the next month and I have been studying since the last week and I plan to keep studying the next month until the exams are done so don't expect a new chapter the next month.**

_**Anonymous Reviews:**_

_**Sturm And drang:**_ **I wanted to make a fast update, but some stuff got in the way… About the fight, keep reading, someone you like will make an appearance. **

**I'm curious, why do you think that the next spirit will be Efreet? **

**EPISODE 2: THE JOURNEY OF DEGENERATION.**

**Chapter 18: Fight in Balacruf Mausoleum.**

* * *

**Balacruf Mausoleum**

"I'm surprised that it was so easy…" Decus frowned. "I don't know… after all the problems that Eclipsis gave us I expected something more... challenging."

Suddenly Alice lost her balance making her nearly falling to the ground.

Decus put down the Iron-maiden and went to her side. "Alice, are you ok? You look a little pale. Maybe you have fever." The purple-haired man put his hand over her forehead. "No… Your temperature looks fine."

"OK, three things." Alice looked at Decus with a gaze that could freeze Efreet. "First of all, personal space: stay at least two steps away from me." Decus looked hurt but stepped back as he was told. "Secondly, I'm perfectly fine; it was just a sudden headache, nothing to worry about. And in the third place… For Martel's sake, how in the hell are you supposed to take my temperature with your gloves on!"

Decus looked at his hands and gulped. She was right: he was so worried that he completely forgot to check her temperature properly. He must look like a complete idiot.

That didn't make him stop worrying though. He had been fretting about Alice's health since her eyes turned red. Nickolay had said it was nothing but Decus didn't trust him. How could such a radical change be nothing? Maybe Colette was right about her obsession going too far.

He had always supported her lust for power because he understood why she needed it, an experience that those with easier lives simply couldn't grasp. It had never put him out to kill a monster here and there or that she killed a few people. It didn't matter as long as she was happy. But now she was putting her own life in danger.

He couldn't help thinking that it had something to do with the near death experience they had in the Ginnungagap and with the Cruxis Crystal. If only she spoke to him about it - but her price couldn't countenance that act of weakness.

Should he try again? What if Colette was right? What if her warnings weren't to hold them back, like Alice insisted, but because she was honestly worried?

"Alice…" Decus hesitated; Alice looked at him from the corner of her eye. "I know that you don't like to talk about this-" he stopped when he noticed a shadow sliding over the wall and began to look arround from one side to another.

"What are you doing?" Alice demanded. "If that's another of your stupid seductive dance moves then you should know that it's failing. Like all the others."

"Didn't you see it?"

"See what?"

"That shadow… It was really big and fast!"

Nickolay sighed. "Two bodies cannot occupy the same space. If we take that for granted and we know that matter cannot pass through us, then by examining the size of the corridor we must reach the conclusion that it is impossible for a body of large proportions to pass through here without all of us noticing."

Alice frowned. "For the love of- Couldn't you just say that the corridor is too tight for us to overlook something big passing through?"

"Believe me, if I could I would." The narcissistic smile never left his face.

"I don't care about your explanation! I saw a shadow moving, I swear it!" Decus pointed in the direction the shadow had gone.

Alice looked at the spot he pointed to: it was empty and dark with nowhere to hide. "You're just being paranoid Dumbo-Decus. Let's keep going."

Decus sank into insecurity once more. Alice was right; his senses were playing tricks on him. He hadn't been able to sleep properly the last few days and he was tired: the kidnapping of the Chosen, the defeat that almost ended in death at the Tower of Mana, the purple flames inexplicably under his control, and of course Alice's deteriorating health after the first seal. It was all too much for his nerves to handle; his imagination must be toying with him.

"I guess you're right. But we should leave as fast as we can, I just can't help but feel like we're being watched."

He run to catch up with Alice and Nickolay.

Meanwhile Colette stood a few steps behind them. She had seen something moving on the wall too; a presence familiar to her, though she couldn't give it a name. The only reason why she hadn't said anything was because she feared Alice's reaction -_"are you implying that I'm wrong?"_- She put her hand over the metallic collar and gulped, she wasn't going to go through another electrical discharge.

As she examined the shadow she cast on the wall she saw a red flicker. Slowly, it became a pair of red eyes staring at her. She almost let out a frightened shout when a black hand protruded from the wall and silenced her scream. Soon a long thin black body that detached itself from the wall, it was Shadow, the summon spirit. The dark spirit put a finger against his face where his mouth should be and disappeared back into the darkness on the wall.

"Are you coming? Or are you going to force me to be more convincing?" Colette started at the shout. Nickolay stood by the hallway entrance with one hand on the remote controlling the collar.

"Yes! I'm sorry, I got distracted."

Colette glanced back at her shadow. When it nodded to her, she joined her captors.

"This place has become really quiet. The tremors must have scared everyone." Alice commented.

"I'm glad, company is overrated." Nickolay said. "The only company I need is the one that gives me my test subjects." He looked at Alice for a brief second before directing his gaze to Colette.

Shadow moved into Alice's shadow and began to materialize behind her, sprouting from the shade on the ground. Without a sound, he transformed his right arm in a sharp blade and raised his arm ready to give a lethal blow.

Decus felt a chill. "Really, am I the only one who's having a bad fee-" He looked at Alice and saw the spirit of darkness ready to pounce with his sword ready to cleave Alice's neck. "Shit!" Decus shoved Alice out of the way sending them both tumbling to the ground.

The blade cut Nickolay's cheek instead and threw his glasses on the floor. Instead of continuing the attack, the summon spirit sank into the shadows on the floor and disappeared.

Zelos appeared from behind him and threw the scientist to one side. Taking advantage of the confusion, he grabbed Colette's hand and started dragging her away.

"Quickly Colette!"

"No, wait!" She tried to dig in her heels but Zelos ignored her and carried her away despite her complaints.

Decus and Alice stood up while Nickolay groped for his glasses, keeping one hand pressed against the wound on his face.

"Are you OK Alice?" Decus asked, looking her upside down worriedly searching in her body for injuries.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Alice checked Decus for wounds when he wasn't looking at her, he was uninjured. "What the hell was that thing!"

"I told you I saw something! That thing must have been what I had seen on…" Decus looked around and noticed someone missing. "Wait a moment, where's Colette?"

"What!" Alice screeched. "They took her!" Then she reacted as she always did: by blaming someone else.

"Damn it! This is your entire fault Nickolay! You were supposed to watch after her!" Nickolay ignored her and kept looking for his glasses; needless to say, this only made Alice angrier. "Are you listening to me! Why did you lose her?"

"Calm down! I didn't lose her, she went that way." Nickolay pointed in the direction Zelos and Colette had taken. "My guard was down; I didn't expect that kind of attack. Can you help me to find my glasses? They must be here somewhere."

Alice's puffed her cheeks and bent her whip until the end sprung out of her grip, giving Decus, who once more was in the wrong place, a lash on the cheek. "Ow-!"

"Who cares about your stupid glasses? If we lose her then I can't keep opening seals and this thing I have on my chest will be useless!" She complained pointing the Cruxis Cristal

"Tch… It stings…" Nickolay moaned as he touched his cheek. "I'm going to be really mad if this leaves a mark on my pretty face. Have you found my glasses? I can't see very well without them." Suddenly there was a _crack_ under his foot. Nickolay reached down and picked up the shattered frames. "Damn… I really liked them."

"Are you serious? Am I the only one worried for losing our hostage!" Alice protested again.

"I'm worried too Alice. Your problems are my problems." Decus said.

"Of course you're worried lapdog…" Nickolay muttered. He reached into one pocket and retrieved a new pair of spectacles. "Much better."

"Decus! Let's go! I have no time for this, we have to recover Colettie!" Alice commanded childishly.

"On my way my dear!" Decus replied diligently as he bowed.

"There is no need for so much hurry. We just need to follow the screams; they won't get too far away." Nickolay explained as he cleaned his new glasses (despite them already being immaculate.)

"What are you talking about?" Alice demanded but her question was answered by a familiar scream from close-by.

"When we entered the Mausoleum I reduced the distance activation for the collar." Nickolay explained. Alice smiled.

"I like your style. Sorry for not trusting you." Alice rounded off her apology with a curtsy, lifting the hem of her dress by the tips of two fingers like a well to-do woman.

Decus crossed his arms over his chest, yearning and jealousy fighting inside him. Why was Alice nice to everyone but him? He knew her better than anyone, he did everything for her, and still he was the only one who never got any of her sweet smiles or nice comments. It wasn't fair. He would like a kind word too, even if it was fake it was better than nothing.

* * *

"Why did you drop her like that you idiot!" Sheena tried to attend to Colette, who was still screaming in pain on the floor, but Zelos stopped her. "What the hell are you doing! Let go of me! We have to help her!"

"I want to help her too but we need to be careful! She's being shocked, that's what made me drop her."

"How can you stand before her looking her like that? Let me help!"

Sheena tried to go to Colette but Zelos held on.

"Don't you get it? If you touch her you will be electrocuted too. I'm trying to figure out what to do."

Suddenly the electrical shocks stopped. Colette tried to catch her breath, twitching with exhaustion. Zelos released Sheena and went to Colette's side with her.

"Oh my goddess, I was so worried about you." Sheena embraced her friend on the verge of tears. "We were so worried about you! But don't worry Colette, everything will be fine now."

"You should pay better attention." A voice that they had never heard before said. "If you touch her while the collar is active you will become part of the electrical chain."

A pink haired man dressed in a lab-coat appeared from the corridor followed closely by Alice and Decus.

Zelos took a step forward, putting himself between his friends and enemies.

"Are you the responsible of this?" He asked with his hand on his sword hilt, blade loose in the sheath.

"No. You are the responsible of this." Nickolay pointed at the pair on the ground. "You took her away from me without thinking about the consequences of your actions and she paid the price of your imprudence."

"You bastard…" Zelos muttered clutching the hilt of his sword even tighter.

"I should be the one saying that since you messed around with my guinea pigs." He mentioned angrily, "Just look what you have done!"

"I… I remember you… You were in the Mana Tower too…" Sheena said. "Who are you!"

"My name is Nickolay Mladalov." He bowed. "And now that the introductions are over could you give me back my experiment?"

"I don't think so..." Sheena said taking out a fan of paperscards.

Nickolay put his hand over his forehead and sighed in disappointment. "Why do you keep forcing me to do this…" and then he pressed a button on his bracelet. Colette began to shriek in pain and Sheena and Zelos prepared to attack. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. The scientist stopped shocking Colette. Sheena knelt by her again while Zelos remained standing. "If you don't give me Colette back, I will turn the collar's power level from painful to lethal and Colette will die in a matter of seconds. I don't want to do such a thing. Her body and special conditions make her an irreplaceable subject for my experiments, but if I can't keep her, no one will. So unless you are a genius and know how to deactivate this complex device I created myself, I would give her back," Nickolay explained calmly. "So what is it going to be? Painful death or surrender?"

Sheena anticipated Zelos' reply. "Deactivation."

"Very funny. As if you could-" Before the scientist could finish a round piece of metal rolled to his feet, it was the shocking collar. "What? Impossible!"

"Don't worry Colette, we'll take care of them and bring you back home." Sheena said. Her warm demeanor turned cold when she looked at the scientist and the pair behind him.

"So what is going to be? Painful death or surrender?" Zelos asked smiling. Nickolay grunted.

A lightning bolt hit the roof making some dust and rocks fall in between both groups. Everyone looked in surprise at Alice.

"I'm beginning to feel ignored here…" Alice pouted. "All you do is talk and talk and talk as if I wasn't here. You're beginning to make me feel sad. Especially you Colette, for not coming back with me." Her voice changed from sad to vicious. "And you don't want to make me sad do you Colette? You know what happens when I'm sad."

Colette gulped and made an effort to stand up - after the discharges it wasn't an easy task -and began to walk towards Alice. But she didn't go far, Zelos stopped her.

"What are you doing Colette?"

"I'm sorry… If I don't go back with her she'll kill more innocent people."

"You stupid bitch! How dare you blackmail her like that!" Zelos accused.

"As long as I win..."

Zelos lifted Colette's head and looked in her eyes.

"You don't need to go with them! What they do isn't your fault! They're the only ones responsible for their actions."

"But…" Colette's insecure reply was cut off by Sheena.

"Don't worry; they won't do anything to anyone." Sheena took her by the shoulder, her face grave. "We won't let them."

"Please Colettie come back to your master," Alice begged in a fake sad voice. "If you come with me, I promise that I'll be kind to you and that I won't hurt anyone." She put her hand behind her back and crossed her fingers.

Zelos grunted, annoyed by Alice's behavior. He had never thought that he could ever feel disgusted of an attractive girl but Alice kept proving him wrong, again and again.

"_I should have let her pet kill her when I first met her" _he thought.

"Ignore her and get out of here. We'll take care of them." Sheena said.

Colette nodded and started for the entrance. In other situation she would have helped her friends but without her weapons and Cruxis Crystal she couldn't do anything.

"_If only I knew how to perform holly spells without a Cruxis Crystal…"_ She sighed.

Alice aimed at the wall nearest Colette and conjured a summoning circle on it.

"I'm afraid that I can't allow that. Athos! Porthos! Stop her!"

The black bunny like monster and her pink fenrir got in Colette's way. Colette tried to run but she wasn't a match for the fenrir's speed. It jumped on her and threw her on the ground. The pink wolf was growling over her throat, showing his sharp teeth.

"Help me!" Colette cried.

Sheena had barely taken two steps when she heard crackle of an electrical spell and she barely dodged the lighting thrown by Alice.

"Damn! She almost got me!"

"You should be more worried about yourself than about her." Alice pointed at Colette. "Unlike in your case, I have no intention of killing her… yet."

Zelos took out his sword and shield. "Don't let your guard down Sheena, she will use all the dirty tricks possible."

"I know it. Don't worry about me."

Decus took out his sword as well. "How dare you to talk about dirty tricks after using shadows to attack my beloved Alice! You're both just two hypocritical tricksters!"

"'Never fight fair.' It's part of the ninja code," Sheena replied. "And even if it required us to fight honorable opponents, it says nothing about sadistic, blackmailing bitches."

Alice grumbled and stomped her feet on the ground. She hated that people called her names to make fun of her way to do things. As if they were any better than she was after all what they had done.

"Decus! Take care of Tethe'alla's Chosen. I want him alive. The loud mouthed ninja is mine!" she shouted. "I'll give them a reason to call me 'sadistic bitch!'"

Decus put his right hand over his chest and bowed. "As you wish my dear."

"I'll deal with you myself." Alice threatened, pointing at Sheena.

"I need to finish this fast and help Colette." Sheena muttered, which only irritated Alice more.

"Don't you dare to ignore my power!" Alice screamed. "I'll show you what I'm able of!"

Alice aimed at the ninja with her rapier. It sparked and hissed once it had charged with electricity and she shot an electric volt that shattered the wall behind Sheena, missing her head by inches.

"_Did she cast a tier two spell without an incantation?"_

Sheena's answer came in a lighting bolt that she dodged with a cart-wheel; part of the pillar behind her was shattered instead of her body.

"_Phew…"_Sheena sighed before dodging another bolt and observing its destructive effects._"I'm lucky that she's got terrible aim."_

Alice kept shooting electric bolts to the ninja but she proved to be a real head ache, her unreadable movements made her the hardest living target Alice had ever had to deal with. Despite her curvy shape, her ninja training was more than obvious and it was beginning to frustrate Alice.

"I got you!" Alice shouted, but the lightning missed once more. "Gah! Why don't you stay still so I can kill you!" Alice pouted angrily.

Meanwhile, Zelos and Decus stood on the other side of the room looking at each other and walking in circles, trying to measure each other's strength.

"I can't wait to beat that arrogant spoiled rich face you've got," Decus said tightening his grip on the hilt of his sword.

"Wow! Someone really had a traumatic childhood," Zelos noted. "But you're taking too much for granted. You couldn't defeat me last time so what makes you think that you can defeat me now?"

"The last time I was fighting Lady Marta, the blonde fag, and you; and if I remember it right I gave you a lot of problems. So the real question is: what makes YOU think that you can defeat me this time?" Decus asked.

A pair of golden wings made of mana rose from the Chosen's back and with a self-confident smile he pointed the tip of his sword at Decus and said: "Well… Let's just say I wasn't using all my potential."

Decus ignited his sword with purple flames and smiled back. "That makes two of us."

Then both charged against the other ready to fight when all of the sudden Decus raised his hand and suddenly stopped.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Zelos slid to a stop too. "I know that this is a little awkward, with me wanting to impress my beloved Alice and you wanting to help your friends, but you look like a guy with class. I want to propose a single rule to our fight." Zelos arched an eyebrow. "Not in the face. I have a pretty awesome face and I don't want any scars to disfigure my natural beauty."

"Finally, someone who understands not hitting anything important!" Zelos shouted in relief. "Yeah! I definitely agree with that rule."

"OK! Now let's fight!"

Decus and Zelos charged again but only got a few steps before suddenly Zelos raised his hand. Decus stopped.

"Since you've made one rule I think that it would be fair if I made another." Decus agreed with the chosen's explanation. "The rule is simple: no hits to the crotch! I have a special affection for that area and I want to keep using it no matter what happens after this fight."

"I agree completely with that!" Decus shouted. "Those lonely nights would be much lonelier without it if you know what I mean." Zelos nodded. "Which reminds me, no cutting or breaking hands!"

Both swordsmen prepared to fight again when suddenly Decus raised his hand once more.

"I couldn't help it but notice that you also have lovely and well cared for mane like me." Decus pointed out. "So I would like to establish another rule: No hair pull-!"

"SHUT UP AND FIGHT!" Alice and Sheena shouted in unison.

"I'm sorry Alice, I was just trying to put down some ground rules before fighting." Decus explained.

"Do I look like I care? Just beat him and bring him to me," Alice demanded keeping an eye on the elusive ninja.

"And you?" Sheena asked her companion.

"I didn't want to risk my beauty," Zelos shrugged.

Sheena sighed.

"OK. Let's do this!" Decus shouted, ready to fight. "FOR ALICE!" Zelos rolled his eyes at the battle cry.

"How unexpected," The Chosen commented dryly.

Their swords collided throwing sparks into the air. Decus' might was so overwhelming that Zelos was forced to parry his broad sword using his sword and shield despite being in his angelic form. On the other hand Decus wasn't having an easy time; for the first time since he fought against Richter to gain his rank of "_espionage division leader" _in the Vanguard, someone actually parried one of his destructive blows. Usually the force of his strikes and the size of his sword was enough to discourage any adversary from blocking or parrying hits; the Chosen was stronger than he seemed.

Zelos knew that if he tried to strike Decus with his own sword he would leave himself open to be smashed Decus' oversized weapon. Decus knew that if he didn't try anything else the fight could take forever.

Given the situation, both of them decided to improvise and so Decus punched the Chosen in the face with his free fist and Zelos kneed Decus in the crotch at the same time. The movement of time and space seemed to pause for a moment as they hit each other.

"Ahhh! My face! My beautiful face! How could you!" Zelos pressed a hand against his cheek. If he hadn't known it was a fist he would swear that a cannon ball had hit him on the face. "We agreed to not hit the face!"

"Ah-ah-ah-ah…" Panting, Decus fell to the ground on his knees and punched the floor with one fist, holding his crotch with the other hand as he cried. "FUCK! Damn, you sick bastard! No guy kicks another guy in the crotch! That's sacred!"

Both women looked at their partners in disbelieve but neither had time to waste by shouting at them; despite their childish ways they always managed to get to job done, how? That was another mystery. So instead of wasting their time shouting at them they focused in their own fight.

"Stop hiding under behind those pillars, coward!" Alice shouted, shooting relentlessly hundreds of small sharp icicles.

Sheena didn't have the breath to reply. She just kept running, using the pillars as temporary protection. She had also noticed a serious problem: Alice's power seemed to have grown since the last time they fought.

"That's how you plan to defeat me? Running away?" Alice taunted.

Sheena didn't listen and jump behind another pillar to think of a strategy to defeat the sadistic blonde.

"_This is really bad," _she thought.

She had to admit that Alice was right: in the current situation she wouldn't be able to defeat her if she couldn't get close enough for hand to hand combat, where she had the advantage. In other circumstances she would have used casting time to get closer but Alice was able to use powerful spells without any incantation, an ability she had only seen in the xeraphims and a few elf wizards. The other option, of course, would be to just wait until Alice ran out of mana but that didn't seem to be happening anytime soon. The longer Sheena waited the more likely it was that she would be caught in one of Alice's spells.

"You won't be able to hide forever! Sooner or later you'll have to come out and then I'll be there to kill you!" Alice taunted once more.

On the other side of the room, Zelos wasn't having anymore luck than his companion. Despite his speed and superior strength in angelic form, Decus was proving to be a formidable opponent. He had not only been able to anticipate all of Zelos' movements but also counterattacked.

"Damn!" Zelos cursed as he teleported away to avoid an attack. Despite the size of Decus' sword the purple haired swordsman was able to use it as if it wasn't any heavier than a wooden training sword.

"Once I defeat you I will give what's left of you to Alice to play with it," Decus taunted, trying to sound threatening. "Sadly for you she always ends up breaking her new toys."

Zelos chuckled at his comment to avoid giving it weight but he still didn't want to end up in the hands of that sadistic girl.

He had been trying to observe Decus' fighting style but had found something curious about it: he didn't have one. All he seemed capable of doing was waving his sword around in the fanciest way possible, like something taken out of a bad samurai graphic novel. It was as if he was trying to impress someone rather than employing real swordsmanship.

However the biggest problem for Zelos was the size of his sword. It didn't mattered if he wasn't a well trained swordsman, the length of the blade combined with his fast blows kept his opponents away, or else they would be on the receiving end of a strike too strong to be blocked.

"_The size of his sword is his __main strength…. If only I could find a way to turn that against him."_The Chosen only thought for a moment before an idea hit him. He grinned._"I got it."_

"I don't think that she wants me alive just to_'break me'_." Zelos shouted, trying to sound casual.

"Uh? What do you mean?"

"Think about it. Why would she specifically tell you to take me alive and go to so much trouble if she only wants to kill me? She obviously wants me for something else."

"I don't think I understand what you mean." Decus said.

"Well, isn't it obvious? She wants me alive because she wants something from me that you can't give her. She wants me alive because she wants me to please her. If you know what I mean." Zelos raised his eyebrows suggestively.

"What!" Decus shouted, drawing closer with a menacing expression.

"It's not like she's trying to hide it or anything. She already told me she had hots for a strong and handsome man like me when I found her in this place a few months ago." Zelos kept taunting him while Decus became angrier and angrier. "I'll get to please her like you never did. But don't worry; I'll take some pictures to put in your Iron Maiden so you can see her face when a real man has made her happy."

"YOU! HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT MY BELOVED AS IF SHE WERE SOME SLUT! I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" Decus' sword and right arm lit up in purple flames as his rage exploded.

"_Great. First part of the plan has worked."_The red haired man saw Decus charging and ran into the first passage he saw with a terrified gulp._"I hope the rest of my plan works too or I'm dead man."_

**(…)**

* * *

**Author notes: I know that it was a little weird for Sheena to not summon Shadow or any other spirit again but since in the first game it was her Mystic-Arte I think is something she can only do after some time.**

**Just in case you wonder is not that Decus doesn't have a fight stile, is just that he has his own fight style based in doing visual stuff more oriented in impress someone than in being efficient. However that from a good swordsman point of view, like Zelos, is having no fight stile.**

**In the next chapter: Will Sheena find a way to defeat Alice? Which is Zelos plan? Will it work? Will the heroes rescue Colette or will they fail?**


	19. Fight in Balacruf Mausoleum, part two

**_APOLOGIES TO THE READERS:_ The chapter had so many grammatical errors that I had to update it again. I apologize for the low quality of the content. The fic might still have errors since I didn't use a beta reader to fix it this time but I hope that this time it can be read without making a big effort to understand what's going on.  
**

**Author notes: Well, it has been a long time but I'm finally done with the college exams and able to keep writing. On the good side I passed six of my seven tests, one the bad side I will have to study to pass the one I failed in September but I don't think it will delay my updates.**

_**Anonymous reviews:**_

_**-Guest:**_** Hehe, I'm glad that you found Nickolay's failure fun, I like to add some humor from time to time. As for Colette and Alice I have to agree with you in both statements, but rarely things end like they should.**

**-**_**Sturm and Drang:**_** Thank you. As for the fight between Zelos and Decus… Well, let's just say that main characters are main characters for a reason, but sometimes even main characters die. And yeah, I know that about Norse mythology, is kind of fun that Nidhoog is a dragon and Ratatosk just a squirrel, it doesn't seem fair if you ask me.**

**Enjoy it.  
**

* * *

**EPISODE 2: THE JOURNEY OF DEGENERATION.**

**Chapter 19: Fight in Balacruf Mausoleum, part two.**

* * *

**Balacruf Mausoleum**

Zelos had successfully lured Decus into a narrow corridor, far from Alice and her healing spells; but that was only the half of Zelos' plan.

"I will take you down!" Decus shouted, unaware of the trap he had just fallen into. "Stop running like a coward and face me like a man!"

The Chosen suddenly stopped leaving Decus stunned for a moment.

"_Did it __work?" _Decus thought surprised._"I should ask my enemies to stop running more often."_

"Well, If that's what you want…" Zelos replied with a confident smile.

Decus frowned and charged, ready to cut Zelos' head off with one blow. He had promised Alice that he would keep him alive but that was before the Chosen insulted the honor of his beloved. That was unforgivable, and the penalty was death. But when he tried to strike the sword collided against the wall what allowed Zelos to dodge it with ease. Decus hadn't noticed until then but the passage was too narrow for him to maneuver. He had been so focused in catching the Chosen that he hadn't noticed it until it was too late.

Then Zelos began his counter attack. With the speed of Decus' devastating blows reduced the Chosen could finally parry his attacks without being struck and thanks to the narrow passage his small sword had become an advantage: now he controlled the fight. It didn't take Zelos more than five moves to slash Decus' shoulder.

Decus fell back on his knee putting his hand over the wound. It was painful, but hardly fatal. However he wouldn't be able to hold his sword with his right hand until it was healed.

"Now get out of here!" Zelos ordered. "I should kill you for what you did in Palmacosta and to my friend. But blaming you for the entire _'Blood Purge'_ would be silly from me."

"Tch…" Decus panted with a half smile. "If you want to pass throw this corridor it will have to be over my corpse, I won't let you get close to my dear Alice."

Zelos put his hand over his face and sighed. "If that's what you want I guess it can't be helped."

Using his angelic powers he teleported behind the wounded purple-haired swordsman and put the tip of his sword against his back. Decus didn't have time to react. The sword was instantly covered in flames and a _'Hell pyre'_ sent him flying several feet.

Zelos sheathed his sword and began to leave when he heard Decus panting on the ground. He turned back and saw the swordsman slowly getting up.

"I thought I told you that you won't leave this place while I'm breathing." Decus coughed staring defiantly to the Chosen.

"Don't you know when to surrender? Stop being an idiot and leave while you can."

"I guess I'm too idiot to even know when to surrender." Decus chuckled.

Zelos kept going in his way not caring about what the purple-haired swordsman was telling him. He had to find a way to taunt him to keep him away from Alice.

"If- If you don't fight me, I'll find your sister!" Decus shouted taking Zelos attention, " and then I will make you regret the moment you stopped fighting me. "

Zelos turned back and unsheathed his sword again.

"I have bad news for you." Zelos pointed at Decus with his sword. "If you wanted to taunt me it has worked." He advanced with a cold glare and no plans to leave Decus alive this time.

For Decus, the situation hadn't changed; his sword was too big for the corridor. But then he did something that Zelos would have never expected, he impaled his own sword in the wall and with a wrench broke off the hand-like shaped tip of the blade. The broken sword now ended in a sharp but abrupt diagonal cut.

"Round two," Decus said as his whole body became engulfed with purple flames, "Fight!" and charged.

* * *

_BANG*_

Another lightning bolt cracked against the enormous statue that Sheena was using to cover herself.

_BANG*_

"_Damn!" _Sheena cursed. _"She's not running out of mana any time soon. I thought that Emil and Marta were exaggerating. Shit! And I can't see Colette from here."_

She tried to poke her head out for a better sight of the room and to check how Colette was but as soon as she shown her head a lightning crashed a few inches away of her face.

"Damn I missed again!" Alice ranted childishly. "You can't hide forever! Come out and let me kill you!"

"Yeah, as if that was going to happen…" Sheena muttered to herself. _"If only I could get close to her…"_

Her thoughts were interrupted by a bolt that shattered the leg of the statue of Sylph making it fall over her. Sheena jumped away and with a pirouette she dodged the next electric spell but when she landed, she slipped. The entire floor around the statue had been covered by a shiny coat of ice.

"It worked!" Alice shouted happily. "Let's see if you can escape from my next spell now."

"_Mistress of Ice who commands in life and death__-"_

Four plates of ice surrounded Sheena from the four cardinal points and quickly imprisoned her then a fifth appeared above her head to cover the last opening leaving her imprisoned in a space no bigger than a coffin.

Alice continued the spell.

"-_and torture those who oppose my will."_

A bunch of ice blades surrounded the ice coffin. Alice's intentions were clear now.

"It looks like I have finally trapped you." Alice pointed out with a certain note of bragging in her voice, Sheena frowned. "Oh… don't look at me like that. Now is when the fun part begins" Her voice slowly climbed the register until it reached a high, vicious pitch. "When I pronounce the key word all the blades that surround the Frozen-maiden will impale you. But don't think that you will die instantly, none of those ice blades are pointing to a vital organ, they will make you have a slow and painful death."

"You are sick!" Sheena grunted with disgust.

The only reply she got was a disturbing childish laugh.

"Colettie…" The sadist blonde said in a singsong voice. "Look at this, you don't want to miss the spectacle do you?"

"Don't do it please!" Colette begged, crying desperately. "I'll do anything for you, anything! Please don't kill her!"

Alice began to say the key word _"Ice-mai-" _when suddenly the Cruxis Crystal on her chest began to shine. Her chest felt like it had been stabbed and she fell on her knees with a hand clutching her chest. The frozen blades fell on the floor breaking in hundreds of small pieces and a crack began to run over the frozen prison, threatening to break it in any second. But when Sheena thought that she was going to get free the crack began to slowly disappear.

Alice was on the floor with a hand over her chest and the other aiming to the prison, holding the spell together.

"What- what the hell was that?" She muttered breathing hard with her forehead covered in cold sweat. "Could it be the Cruxis Crystal?"

"You can't handle it." The ninja informed. "The Cruxis Cristal wasn't made for people like you."

"Shut up!" Alice shouted angrily. "I can handle this and much more!"

"You aren't the Chosen and I've seen what those things can do. You will end-"

"What makes you think that I want to listen you!" Alice shouted again. "You know nothing about me!"

Alice created a single ice blade above Sheena's head.

"It looks like-" she swallowed with difficulty and coughed. "It looks like I won't be able to have fun with you, but-" she swallowed again "-but that changes nothing for you!"

"ALICE DON'T!" Colette shouted.

Alice smiled disturbingly.

"_Ice-maiden!"_

The blade fell on Sheena's head, splitting open her skull.

"SHEENAAAAAA!" Colette wailed, breaking into tears.

Colette fell on her knees and began to sob frantically. Her stomach twisted and noticed the vomit running through her throat. To have seen how her friend had been killed in front of her was too much. Her body started shaking uncontrollably as she cried the death of her friend.

Alice chuckled and walked closer to the ninja's corpse.

"In the end you were nothing but all bark and no bite. This is what happens to the weak people; they all end up falling when they have to fight someone more powerful than them. Sadly you didn't learn the lesson in time."

Alice smiled proudly. She had an annoying headache but that wasn't going to keep her from enjoying her victory. A victory that was being sweetened by Colette's bitter tears. The blonde's sobs where a music that she would never get tired off.

Alice sighed "_If only she could have been able to use the spell in front of Zelos too."_ She thought.

But something strange got the blonde's attention when she inspected Sheena's corpse: there was no blood.

"What is this? This is impossible that there is no-"

Sheena's body exploded in a cloud of smoke, leaving nothing behind but a stump of wood with parchment stuck to it with words written in a language she had never seen before.

"What kind of trick is this?" Alice demanded outraged. "She was dead, I killed her!"

Colette stopped sobbing when she heard Alice and stared the stump that was now in Sheena's place. This did not go unnoticed.

"You!" Alice shouted, pointing Colette with her toy rapier. "You know something about this, don't you? You will tell me what is going on or else-" She lifted her toy rapier.

"Or else what?" A voice asked.

Alice recognized the voice immediately, it was Sheena.

"Impossible! What is the meaning of this? I've killed you!"

Alice turned back and saw Sheena with her hands pressed together, twining her fingers into different symbols. Suddenly five paper cards surrounded her and joined together by an electric current electrocuting her. Her body shacked and finally collapsed on the ground.

Sheena went towards Colette to comfort her friend. Feigning her death was then only way to take Alice off-guard.

"Are you alright Colette? I'm sorry if I worried you."

Colette dried her tears and smiled in relief. She didn't know what she would have done if Sheena had died because of her.

Sheena smiled and went closer to her friend.

The ninja suddenly stopped and began to shake engulfed in electricity and collapsed leaving behind a cloud of smoke. The back of her tunic was burned away and she had a smoking burning on her back. Behind her was Alice still aiming at her with the tip of her toy rapier sparking.

Colette ran to the ninja but was caught by Nickolay.

"You are not going anywhere."

Colette twisted and pulled trying to escape the pink-haired scientist.

"Sheena! Let me go! Let me go! Sheena!"

Nickolay took out a syringe and jabbed it into Colette's neck, making her lose the consciousness almost instantly.

"I hope the dose wasn't too much. I still need her alive." The scientist muttered.

Alice snickered and looked to Sheena's smoking body.

"You really thought that such an amateur spell could defeat me? Ha! I haven't arrived this far for nothing you know."

Alice prepared herself to cast a second spell to finally kill the ninja when a loud clang from the corridor where Decus and Zelos were fighting in interrupted her concentration.

A few seconds after Zelos appeared flying backwards and falling on the ground. The Chosen put a hand on the floor and recovered with a somersault. His shield had a big burning crack in the middle and one of his yellow mana wings was half burned.

"Damn it! What a stubborn guy!" Zelos panted.

The red-haired turned his head and saw Sheena's unconscious body on the ground with her back burned. The ninja coughed and Zelos sighed in relief, he cared for her much more than what she would believe.

Decus ran in the room with his sword (or with what was left of it) covered in purple flames and ran towards Alice.

"Alice, is everything alright?"

"Yeah, just a few bruises. I can't say the same about you though, you look awful!" Alice pointed out looking at the wound on his shoulder. "Well, looks like I'll have to take care of it."

Alice casted a healing spell on Decus' shoulder fully healing his wound in a few seconds.

"It feels great, thank you Alice. You're the best!" Decus said as he moved his now fully recovered arm.

"Don't get too excited about it." Alice sighed. "You would be useless if I let that wound get infected. Do you remember the last time? I don't want to endure your feverish delusions again, standing your 'normal' self is already a pain in the ass," she explained casually. "Now, if I remember right, I told you I wanted the Chosen…"

Suddenly her body shivered and her vision began to blur._"What…? What's going on?"_

Decus bowed. "Oh Yeah! Let me take care of it."

"_This is bad, really bad!" _Zelos thought, putting himself between the duo and Sheena.

Alice's Cruxis Crystal began to shine again and she felt another sharp stabbing pain in her chest, this time two times more painful.

"Alice, do you feel alright?" Decus moved closer to his companion when she didn't reply, the fact that she didn't complain about his closeness worried him more. "Alice!?"

Suddenly her legs became completely numb and grabbed Decus' jacket.

The purple haired took her before she fell.

"Alice! Alice! What's going on!?"

Her blurry vision began to darken and Decus' voice became fainter each second until she stopped hearing him.

"Alice! Alice!"

Decus laid his beloved on the floor and shook her gently.

"She has fainted." Nickolay noted. "That was unexpected."

"What do you mean by unexpected!"

"Do I have to explain that too? What I mean is that I didn't expect her to lose the consciousness. This is certainly something..." The scientist took a moment to think the most appropriate word. "...interesting. We should take her back to the laboratory."

Decus softly caressed Alice's hair and realized that it had become silver-white.

"How can you call this interesting!? Look at her hair! And she has fainted!"

"Yeah, I noticed that. In fact I was the one who pointed that out a few moments ago." Decus looked as if he was about to argue but Nickolay cut him off. "So are you going to keep babbling or are you going to help me to carry her to the laboratory?"

Decus was about to argue but Alice's condition was more important at the moment. He took Alice's limp body and began to leave the Mausoleum with the scientist. But if Nickolay thought he was done he was wrong; once Alice had recovered her health again he would tell him everything he knew, no one toyed with Alice's health.

"Hey, where do you think you're going!?" Zelos shouted pointing at them with his sword. Both men looked at him. "Do you really think that I would let you leave this place with Colette without-"

"Your companion needs an urgent medical care. She is stable but things could turn bad for her if she doesn't get help soon." Nickolay said calmly.

Zelos looked back at Sheena and frowned, he was right, Sheena's wound was pretty nasty, and his fight with Decus has left him exhausted. He needed to go find Raine fast so she could heal her.

"So what are you going to do? Will you try to stop me or will you take care of your friend?" The scientist smiled at his silence as if he already knew the answer. "That's what I thought."

And with that being said they left the place leaving Zelos pointing at them with his sword impotently.

* * *

**Palmacosta**

"Apprentices of freshwater we have arrived to Palmacosta!" Aifread shouted. "Where the water is crystal clear, the sun shines, and the company women are clean and cheap."

"You have no remedy." Presea sighed. Aifread answered with a wink and a smile.

"I must admit that I had my doubts when I first saw your ship, but is faster than what I thought," Regal said.

"I told you it was the fastest ship in this side of the sea."

Aifread docked the ship and extended the gangplank.

"Well, it has been a pleasure to do business with you." Aifread said, bowing to Presea and Regal. "But now I have to go to Luin. I have a cargo of dru- OF DRUMS! To ship there."

"Drums?" The pink haired girl asked suspiciously.

Aifread gulped and cleaned the sweat of his forehead with his handkerchief and tied it again around his head.

"Yeah, yeah! Drums, everybody likes drums!" The smuggler smiled nervously.

"Regal! Presea!" A familiar voice shouted.

The pair turned and saw Raine Sage coming to them waving and smiling happily accompanied by a man dressed with a red shirt and black dress-coat.

"Well! It's getting late. I've got to go now." Aifread hastily took off the moorings. "It has been a pleasure and all that, bye-bye!"

"Why is he leaving so fast?" Presea asked in her usual calm voice.

"Who knows… Let's go with Raine and whoever is with her."

Presea and Regal approached to Raine and the unknown person that was walking with her.

"I'm glad to see that you have made it here so fast." Raine said. "I hope that Aifread wasn't a problem. No one else wanted the job. Things are being quite awkward lately and after the last earthquakes sailors don't want to burst into the sea."

"Well, it was a little expensive but he was fast."

"Expensive? He was pretty cheap. It only took me a few gald to convince him." Raine mentioned casually.

Regal stood silent with his mouth hanging open.

"What!? You paid him already! He told me that I had to pay for the message you sent me!"

"Hmmm…" Presea muttered with a thoughtful face. "Now that you mention it I think he also billed you the oil but his ship is a sailboat."

Raine covered her mouth with one hand trying not to laugh.

"It isn't funny Raine," Regal snarled.

"Oh, it is, but to understand it you should see it from my point of view."

Dias looked on patiently the scene and directed his gaze to the smaller member of the group. Presea was looking at him with a cold, static gaze.

"Who are you?" Presea demanded in her usual emotionless voice.

"Is true I haven't presented myself. How ill-mannered. My name is André Dias." He bowed with one hand on his chest. "Is a pleasure to meet you."

"My name is-" Regal began but he was cut off before he could finish.

"The duke Briant, please, you don't need presentations. And this small girl must be Presea Combatir."

Presea kept looking at him without saying a single word.

"It looks like you already know us." Regal continued.

"Please, everyone knows the _Great Heroes of Regeneration_. Who didn't save our world once but twice."

The way he said _"Great Heroes of Regeneration," _it was hard to tell if he was mocking them or praising them. In his years of hobnobbing with the nobility Regal had met plenty of hypocrites and normally could read fake smiles like open books. But this guy was different, it was impossible for Regal to read through his words or know what he was thinking.

"I don't like you." Presea said suddenly, breaking the silence.

"My, my, my, what a scary girl." Dias replied calmly.

Regal took Presea by the shoulder and draw her attention to him.

"Presea! Don't be like that. We still don't know him."

"Don't worry, the sincerity is something I appreciate."

"If you don't mind it, I guess it doesn't matter." Regal spoke. "Any new about Colette?"

Raine's expression changed from relaxed to serious in less than a second.

"We know nothing about Colette's state yet and things might be worst than we thought. Did you feel the earthquakes?" Regal nodded. "We have reasons to think that Decus and Alice are involved with them."

"What happened?" Presea asked. "I thought that Marta and Emil killed them in the Ginnungagap."

"I guess they were only weak and unconscious but Marta and Emil weren't in to mood for checking it." Raine explained.

Suddenly Raine's communication device began to ring.

"I see…" The half-elf spoke worriedly. "Dias, can we use your house for a medical emergency?"

"But of course,"

Suddenly Presea showed her first sign of humanity since landing. "Did something happen to Colette?" She asked anxiously. "Do they have her back?"

Raine didn't reply, instead she kept talking with whoever was calling her.

"Yeah, take her to Dias' house! I will see her there. We will have everything ready when you come. Hurry up… Yeah, I know, I know."

"And?" Presea demanded.

"It's Sheena. She has been wounded in a fight against Alice." Presea squeezed the handle of her axe and frowned. "Zelos has applied some gels on her wounds but she still needs medical care, they will be here in a few minutes."

"If anything happens to her…" Presea muttered.

"Don't worry, I'm sure she will be fine."

Raine, Regal and Presea went with Dias to his small mansion in the outsides of Palmacosta and improvised a stretcher in the living room using the table and a quilt.

"I haven't seen your maid. Where is she?" Raine asked casually.

"Beatrice? She is on vacations. She should be back here tomorrow."

The door bell rang and Regal opened the door and helped Zelos to carry Sheena to the improvised stretcher.

"How is she?" Zelos asked impatiently.

"Give me a moment," Raine replied while she healed the wound and inspected the damage.

The red head was walking nervously in circles cursing in low voice.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! I should have been there. If I had fought at her side none of this would have happened, I was overconfident."

"She will be fine," Raine announced and everyone breathed in relief but Dias, who seemed more interested in the damage of the wound than in Sheena's condition.

"She will have to rest a few days and apply orange gel on the wounds every eight hours. Someone will have to stay and take care of her, but she will be fine."

"How did it happen?" Regal asked.

"I don't know. I was fighting against Decus in other place, and when I went back she was already on the floor with that wound on the back." Zelos sighed and punched the couch. "I lured Decus away thinking that it would be a good idea to separate him from Alice so she couldn't heal him. Damn it! I shouldn't have left her alone."

"You took the most logical option, no one can blame you for what you did." Presea said trying to comfort the Chosen. She might not be the most talkative person but she knew that the red haired chosen felt something special for the ninja.

"I shouldn't have. If Alice hadn't had an attack provoked by the Cruxis Crystal I don't know what would have happened."

"So… The Cruxis Crystal has rejected Alice?" Dias asked looking more interested in this than in Sheena's injuries.

"I don't know. Maybe, I don't really care about what happens to that bitch right now. As far as I care she can die." Zelos grumbled.

"Of course, Sheena's state is more important right now."

"So they took Colette to get the Cruxis Crystal." Regal deduced. "But that doesn't explain why they are keeping her."

"I think they're using her for closing the seals but I don't know why." Zelos admitted.

"We will invest more time in discovering it later," Raine interrupted. "How was Colette?"

"Physically, she was fine for being with those three psychos. She only had a few bruises here and there. I'm more worried about what that sadist bitch can be doing to her mentally or what that scientist want to do with her body, he looked like a crazy comic villain." Zelos said.

"Scientist? There is someone else with them?" The half-elf asked.

"Yeah, there was a pink haired guy with them. I don't know what he had in mind but he seemed to be another Rodyle. Nickolay was his name I think."

"Nickolay you said?" Raine asked.

"Yeah, why? Do you know him?"

Raine first instinct was to deny it but after looking at everyone's suspicious gaze decided that it would be completely useless. "Well, I once meet a Nickolay that fits your description but it could be a coincidence. Wondering about this stuff is a waste of time, we have to find out where they are hiding." She added quickly trying to change the subject of the conversation. "If Alice has lost the consciousness they will have to take care of her somewhere. Do you have any clue where it could be?"

"The scientist mentioned a laboratory but I have no idea where it can be."

"I know where they are." A faint, wheezing voice interrupted them, followed by a harsh cough. It was Sheena.

"Sheena! Since when have you been awaken?" Regal asked. "You should rest."

"I'm fine…"

The black haired girl tried to stand up but the terrible pain of the wound didn't let her. Regal put her back on the stretcher.

"Regal is right, you should rest." Raine confirmed. "The burn on your back is pretty bad, you're lucky that no internal organs were damaged."

"Damn! I forgot the basic rule in any fight: 'never turn your back on your enemy'." Sheena panted.

"I'm glad you are fine." Presea said, sounding relieved.

"You said you knew where the Chosen was. Where is she?" Dias asked.

"Her name is Colette!" Presea said sharply.

"True, I apologize. It's a bad habit. I didn't mean to sound offensive," he explained.

"Well, I don't…" Sheena groaned and blew out a sharp gust of air. "I don't know where she is, but I know someone who does."

In front of them, Shadow materialized, drawing up from their shadows, but this time the spirit of darkness was a little smaller than the last time they had seen it.

* * *

**Triet, Renegade's Base.**

Decus entered the base holding Alice's unconscious body in his arms followed by Nickolay and Colette who had already recovered the consciousness. Suddenly a red eye in her shadow blinked. None of them seemed to notice that this time they carried something else with them.

* * *

**(...)  
**

**Author notes:**** OK! How many of you thought that Sheena had died? I bet more than one didn't expect that. Anyway thank you everyone for your continued support, to keep writing this long fic without it would be impossible. See you all in the next chapter.**


	20. Hatred

**Author notes: It took me longer than usual but I had to find a new beta reader. I would like to thank "Sturm and Drang" and "Draconic" for pointing out my grammatical errors.**

_**Anonymous reviews:**_

**Sturm and Drang:**** I will only kill a main character if the plot asks me to do it. You know, sometimes is not what you want to write but what the plot want you to do.**

**And without more dilations here is the new chapter, enjoy.**

* * *

**EPISODE 2: THE JOURNEY OF DEGENERATION.**

**Chapter 20: Hatred**

* * *

**Somewhere in Sylvarant**

It was dawn when Beatrice finally arrived to Sylvarant after a campaign day in Tethe'alla. She had planned and executed an assault that intercepted a carriage carrying tax money for the Church of Martel in Meltokio. It had gone mostly as planned though a few men were injured in the process.

The assault was performed successfully with minor setbacks for the Resistance; only a few men were injured during the operation. The knights who protected the carriage were all killed but one, who was left alive to spread the terror in the court. As for the money, half was taken to subsidize the Resistance and the other given to the poor. As Dias had predicted they had won the social support and more men and women had joined their cause.

If things kept going like that the revolution would be imminent. Then she would show the true faces of the so called "Heroes of Regeneration" to the entire world. They would finally see them for what they truly are: murderers

* * *

_**Asgard human ranch, three years ago.**_

_An old woman fell on the floor, putting a hand on her back and dropping the pipe she was carrying on her shoulder. The Desian at her side used the whip to "motivate" her to stand up and carry the pipe, but the woman was so tired she was barely able to breathe. A younger boy tried to help the woman but a whip-lash on the hand put him backwards, making him think twice._

_"Since you are so willing to be helpful take her pipe too." The Desian woman ordered._

_She took a black notebook put up the sleeve of the old woman's dress, looked at the number tattooed on her shoulder and wrote it in the note book._

_The younger boy sighed and left, giving one last gaze to the old woman sadly. Everybody knew that those whose names were written in the "Death Notebook" (that's what they called it), were never seen again._

_"Go to your cell and wait for a Desi-" The Desian ordered but she was cut off by the old woman._

_"You don't need to tell me where to go or what to do, I was here before you were born,__lady. I know exactly what to do."_

_The woman tightened the grip of the whip, lifted it and after a moment of hesitation whipped her on the forearm, wounding the old woman._

_"I won't tolerate any indiscipline during my turn!"_

_"You don't need to demonstrate anything to yourself, Beatrice. We both know what's going to happen this night." The old woman said in melancholy before leaving._

_The Desian didn't seem surprised of her knowing who she was despite the helm she wore; she knew her too. After so much time it was common that the Desians and the humans knew each other. In some cases it wasn't weird that they formed a fellowship; but fellowships with the inferior beings were forbidden by the high-ups. Any disobedience of that rule was punished with imprisonment from one to four months, and with lashes or death depending on the relationship and the development of the exphere of the human. _

_In Asgard's human ranch the humans were usually whipped until death in public as punishment. This was meant to deter the other humans from insubordination as well as feed the exsphere the punished human had on to force it to completion quicker. In Kvar's words, the leader in charge of the ranch, it was "killing two birds with one stone. _

_"Do you want to take a break?" Another woman Desian asked Beatrice._

_"Oh? Yeah, I'm about to finish my turn anyway. I think I have a strained muscle from giving so many blows to these lazy bastards." Beatrice commented casually and laughed when she noticed a superior approaching._

_Both women went to the outsides of the human ranch and walked in the near forest. Beatrice took out a cigarette, put it to her mouth, lit it, sucked up with force and exhaled the smoke calmly._

_"I really needed this. Thank you Catherine." She said casually as she took another puff._

_"No need. We are never going to see her around again are we?" Catherine asked, trying to approach the conversation gently._

_Beatrice breathed the smoke and took another drag._

_"No, I guess we won't."_

_Beatrice had to do the selection that month and Catherine knew how much her friend disliked it. It was a hard job that usually devastated the moral of the selector; they had to choose who lived and who died and be present in all the executions to verify that the correct human was being killed. After having seen so many executions it wasn't weird that the Desian was depressed a few days after. After all, besides a few, albeit huge differences (like the inability of using magic or the inferior life expectancy) humans and half-elves were practically the same. But all the half-elves had to be selectors from time to time to "understand their superiority". They compared them to the cows or pigs in the Desians' Youth courses, and compared the feeding of the expheres with the feeding of farm animals. Both were inferior beings that served a noble purpose, or that was how they liked to call it._

_"Have you never thought about leaving the Desians?" Catherine asked casually._

_"I don't know… I don't like this, but it's better than being surrounded by humans." The white-haired answered._

_"I dislike humans as much as anyone else but I'm tired of this."_

_"Yeah and what are we going to do, just leave the Desians, go to a human town and pretend that nothing happened?" Beatrice puffed again and laughed. "Don't be a fool,__how many half-elves do you know that aren't Desians? You were born in a human ranch, you don't know how things are outside. They are barbarians, the half-elves are treated like outcasts outside of the human ranches. There is no place where a half-elf can live in peace outside of the human ranches." Beatrice explained. "If you had lived outside you would think differently."_

_Catherine sighed sadly and looked to her friend who was trampling the cigarette's butt a little angry._

_"I'm sorry for what happened to your mother."_

_"Nah… It doesn't matter it has nothing to do with that."_

_Beatrice's mother died after the birth of her young brother. It had been a birth with difficulties, the child came out fine but her mother died because no doctor wanted to aid a half-elf. It was then that her father decided to join the Desians to be able to keep Beatrice and her younger brother safe._

_Beatrice had heard hundreds of histories like hers. Some Desians were born in the human ranches like Catherine, but many were Desians who joined because their lives had been reduced to thievery and less than healthy living conditions because no one wanted to give them a job. Most of them were people who only wanted a community where they could live in peace._

_But for Catherine, who had spent her whole life in the human ranch, it wasn't a place to live safely but a place that she couldn't leave because of the humans that lived outside. Humans might never understand it, but human ranches weren't only prisons for them but also for the all half-elves who didn't have anywhere else to go._

_"We should go back to the ranch before anyone notices our absence." Beatrice told her friend. Catherine nodded._

_They both went back to the human ranch when suddenly they were attacked by a large group that came out from everywhere. A woman dressed in strange purple clothes punched Beatrice in the stomach, the half-elf tried to slash at her but the woman dodged with ease and kicked her on the head. On the ground she saw how her friend was being overwhelmed by a swordsman dressed in red who wield two swords. Beatrice tried to help her but as soon as she tried to stand three fire balls hit her throwing her backwards. She hit her head against a tree and lost consciousness._

_When she finally woke she saw herself dressed only in her underwear; the bandits had stolen all her clothes. For a moment she worried, did they do anything else to her while she was unconscious? But her concerns disappeared when she saw the limp body of Catherine lying on the ground only dressed in her underwear and with various wounds._

_"Oh my goddess! Are you ok!?" Beatrice felt stupid for that question, how could anyone be fine in such a state?_

_Catherine didn't answer. Her breath was fast and stifled._

_"Don't worry Cath! I'll find help! I'll bring a doctor, don't worry! I will be back soon Cath!"_

_"I- I don't wanna die!" Catherine moaned, crying in fear. "Don't leave me! I don't wanna die here!"_

_Beatrice grabbed the arm of her friend and looked in her eyes, trying to hold her tears._

_"Don't worry! I will bring you help," Beatrice began to cry. "I promise, you will be fine."_

_Beatrice ran to the human ranch as fast as her legs let her. When she finally reached the ranch she found an overwhelming image: The humans have disappeared and the ground was filled with corpses of half-elves everywhere; the blood tainted the walls and the corridors. Then something hit her mind: her brother and her father, were they dead too?_

_"You have to run." A half-elf told her coughing blood._

_"What happened here!? What the hell is going on?"_

_"A strong group of humans came and did this-" He coughed again. "But you have to run away."_

_"I can't I must find the medical unit, my friend is wounded, and I have find my brother and my fa-"_

_"They are all dead girl!" The man shouted. "This place is about to explode!"_

_Beatrice looked astonished to the half-elf without knowing what to do. Catherine, her father, her brother, dead bodies, the blood, the self destruction mechanism. She had to find the doctors to heal Catherine, but they could be dead and the place was about to explode, and she wanted to find her father and brother, but were they dead too? Did they kill them just like everybody else? She had to help them! But also Catherine! What could she do!_

_"RUN!" The Desian on the floor shouted trying to bring her back to the reality._

_Beatrice reacted to his shout and left running the building as soon as she could. Her mind was in chaos, she couldn't focus __on__ any thought, she didn't know why she was running, she just ran._

_She left the human ranch and a few seconds after crossing the door the building began to explode in sections. Her ears began to ring with a sharp beep that drilled into her brain. Various pieces of the building began to fall around her like a meteor storm. A closer explosion sent her to the floor. She stood up and tried to run again but as soon as she tried she knelt and began to throw up. Her entrails seemed to be broken, it was almost as if a carriage had run over her. She took all her forces and kept running trying to get as far away as she could. Suddenly an enormous explosion, bigger than all the rest, blew up the entire building. Beatrice was caught by the blast and sent flying various feet in the air. When her body finally hit the ground she was already unconscious._

_When she finally woke it was night already. She was in a valley away from the forest where the human ranch was. She was dressed in casual clothes and her wounds and bruises had been healed. Near her there was a guy dressed in black clothes playing a violin and looking to the starry sky._

_Beatrice stood up and walked to the mysterious man. When she was midway the guy stopped playing the violin abruptly and turned back._

_"You should rest." He said and took back the violin and began to play it again._

_From their position she could see various bonfires enlightening Asgard._

_"What's going on?" The white haired girl asked._

_"They are celebrating their freedom," He replied as he kept playing the violin. "And the death of their oppressors," He added in a lower voice._

_Beatrice frowned, she didn't know what he meant. But then it hit her__;__ maybe this man was the one who healed her! If so, he might be able to heal Catherine too._

_"Did you heal me?" Beatrice asked, the man didn't reply, instead he kept playing the music instrument. "I need to know if you did it! My friend has been wounded, I need you to heal her!"_

_The guy stopped playing the violin and looked back at her._

_"Was your friend a blonde half-elf girl wounded in the woods?"_

_"Yes! Did you find her?" Beatrice asked hoping for the best._

_"I'm sorry." He simply answered. Beatrice's eyes began to moisten. "I healed her wounds but she had already lost too much blood. I couldn't do anything."_

_Beatrice began to cry. Catherine, her father, her brother, all were dead. They all had been murdered, her family, her friends, everyone she knew was dead now. Then she understood what the black haired guy had told her a few seconds ago. The humans freed of the human ranch were celebrating the death of the half-elves._

_"I know what is like to lose everyone you cared about." The man told her. "Let it out, release it. Scream."_

_And so she did._

_In that night in which hundreds of lives had been lost only a single scream was released. A loud groan that would never be listened for the pain of one was the joy of thousands._

* * *

**Palmacosta:**

Zelos entered where Sheena was supposed to be resting on the bed, but of course the ninja was too blunt to follow such simple medical advice. Instead she was knelt in a meditating position in front of a lit candle. The candle had an Igaguri symbol drawn on it's surface, Zelos recognized it as the symbol of fire.

"Did I interrupt something important?" Zelos asked, acidly annoyed by Sheena's careless behavior.

"Just a second." She replied not seeming to notice the hint in Zelos' voice. "You know what to do Efreet."

The flame suddenly quintupled its size and a deep voice came from it. "YES!" The flame disappeared.

"You need to rest Sheena." The red-haired told her.

"I feel fine, is just a burn of nothing. That bitch caught me off guard. I shouldn't have underestimated her." She mentioned casually.

"Don't change the subject Sheena. You have been wounded and you should be resting."

"I told you I'm totally fine. You need more than a lighting spell to defeat me!" Sheena shouted proudly. However she noticed that Zelos gaze hadn't change. "Look Zelos…" she said more seriously. "I'm fine. You don't need to worry."

Zelos took away his head band and sighed. "Fine… But be more careful the next time."

Sheena blushed a little and began to play with the tail of the pink ribbon of her dress nervously.

"I know it was my fault that we didn't save Colette! And now she is stuck with them." The ninja mentioned ashamed.

"Wow, Sheena, don't worry. Decus was beating my ass back there, I was about to lose too. The cologne was making me so sick! I don't know how Alice can put up with it." Zelos joked, trying to cheering her up. "Look, you shouldn't blame yourself. Besides thanks to you we know now where they have Colette and we can go rescue her. The idea of keeping a shadowling in Colette's soul in case they managed to get away was great! Don't be so hard on yourself."

Sheena smiled a little more relieved. Zelos might be a pervert some times, but she had to admit the guy had his moments, he always seemed to know what to say.

"Oh, by the way have you talked with Lloyd?"

"Yeah, he seemed pretty annoyed when I told him what we saw." Zelos said. "I had to cut out the macabre details. I only told him what he needed to know. We don't need to worry him more than necessary."

Sheena blushed a little.

"Did you tell him what happened to me?" She asked, Zelos nodded. "Was he worried?"

Zelos frowned angrily. Lloyd, Lloyd, Lloyd, Lloyd, that was all she seemed to care about. He was the one who had to carry her limp and wounded body from the mausoleum to Palmacosta, but did she ask if he had been worried? No! Of course not, how Lloyd felt was more important.

"Yeah! He asked if you were fine." Zelos answered trying to hide his anger.

"And what did you tell him? Was he worried?" She asked shyly like a dumbstruck teen.

"I don't know…" Jealousy was gnawing him from inside. "Maybe, but maybe he was just trying to be polite. He seemed really worried about Colette though."

"Oh… I see." Sheena replied a little disappointed. "Well, after all Colette is the one who's kidnapped, I guess it's normal."

"Well, not to say that there is something between those two. You know what I'm talking about." Zelos added casually.

"Do you think so?"

"Yeah! Of course, is pretty obvious isn't it?" The ex-chosen asked rhetorically.

"I don't know… I've always thought that they were just really good friends. But maybe you are right."

The red haired crossed his arms and frowned. "That's what you thought or that's what you wanted to think?" He thought shooting her a judging gaze.

"Well, thank you for everything Zelos. You are a good friend."

The ex-Chosen was taken by surprise by that comment. He didn't expect her to thank him for what he did. And it was then when he noticed what all of his jealousy had made him say.

"You are welcome." He replied not really sure if he should apologize or just let it go.

Sheena smiled. "Well, I should get ready to go to Triet."

"What!? No way! You might be good enough to walk around here but you can't fight with that burn on your back. There is no way you are going to Triet."

"I told you, I feel fine." Sheena said again ignoring Zelos.

"Is that so?" Zelos asked arching the eyebrows. The red-haired approached to the ninja and softly pressed a finger on her back. Sheena moaned in pain when she felt the pressure on the burn.

"What's wrong with you idiot!" The black-haired groaned.

"See! You can't fight with that wound! You must stay here and rest!"

"And you had to touch the burn!?" Sheena inquired angrily, debating between slapping him hard or slapping him really hard.

"You didn't want to listen me." Zelos pointed.

Sheena crossed her arms and grumbled. Zelos had his point.

"I had worst injuries during the Journey of Regeneration and they didn't stop me." Sheena defended. "And with Raine's healing skills and a few gels I will recover before you can notice. I'm not going to fail my friends when they need me."

Zelos didn't like the idea a single bit but he knew Sheena enough to know that there was nothing he could say to change her mind; she was a stubborn girl. At least if she went with them he could keep an eye on her. Besides she already knew where they were going, even if they let her behind she would end up finding them.

"Fine, fine..." Zelos sighed. "But I don't make myself responsible of what happens to you."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, let's get ready. Emil, Marta and the rest will be waiting for us in Triet."

Zelos left but before closing the door behind him he looked at Sheena again.

"Just don't over do it, ok?"

Sheena looked back at him, smiled and nodded.

* * *

**Triet, Renegade's Base.**

"You are gonna tell me what's going on and you are gonna tell me now!" Decus shouted embedding Nickolay against the wall.

Alice lay unconscious over a medical stretcher in the laboratory. Decus had contained himself until they were back in the abandoned Renegade's Base. Once Nickolay had confirmed she was stable the purple haired man took the scientist by the lab coat and pushed him against the nearest wall.

"Wow, wow, wow, calm down, calm down." The scientist craved nervously.

"Don't tell me to calm down! Something is happening to her and it's because of that damn Cruxis Crystal." Decus shouted, pointing at Alice with one hand and holding Nickolay against the wall with the other. "Each time we close a seal something changes on her. And now she is unconscious because of that shit! So don't you dare to tell me to calm down!"

"Wait a moment! You are blaming all this on me!? I never forced her to put on that crystal did I? No, of course not! This was her choice and-"

"Don't try to fuck me! You think I'm an idiot!? You were the one who gave her the idea in the first place! Nothing of this would have happened if it wasn't for you!"

Decus lifted Nickolay from the lab coat and threw him rolling on the ground.

"OK, OK, you have made your point quite clearly." Nickolay stood up, sacking his coat and walking backwards as he moved the palm of his hand, indicating Decus to calm down. "I understand that you are concerned but there is nothing to worry about. The red eyes and the lost of the hair pigmentation is probably a small mutation caused by the Cruxis Crystal, nothing serious really." He said smiling nervously. "And about the lost of consciousness… Well that's probably because her body is getting adapted to the Cruxis Crystal. In other words her body is readjusting to the changes produced by the exphere."

"What do you mean 'probably'?" Decus inquired unsatisfied with the answer.

"Well, I can't be sure unless I do a few tests of course."

Decus wanted to punch the scientist in the face, but it would probably be a bad choice since he was the only one who could help Alice. He closed his eyes and began to breathe deeply, trying to calm down.

"Fine…" The purple haired said this time more calm. "But don't put a finger on her body."

"You are making this pretty difficult you know? Is really hard to do any analysis without touching the body." Nickolay explained, Decus frowned. "But it doesn't matter, I like challenges!"

Nickolay took the stretcher under a scanner and turned it on. A light began to scan Alice's head and an image of her brain appeared in the screen.

"Hmm… Interesting, there is a lot of brain activity…" Nickolay muttered.

"What do you mean?"

"It means that she is dreaming what is actually a good new."

"How much longer will it take her to wake up?" The swordsman asked impatiently.

"Well, wake up would mean that she is asleep and she is unconscious not asleep so the appropriated question is: When will she recover cons…" NickoIay explained proudly but the gaze that Decus was giving to him made him decide to stop the explanation and answer the question point-blank. "I can't say precisely but probably in a few hours." The scientist informed.

Decus sat in the nearest chair and put his hands on his head, taking a deep relieved breath. This time they had been lucky but the next time things could be different. He had to convince Alice to stop this "Cruxis Cristal quest". Maybe after losing consciousness she will see that it was too dangerous, but what if it wasn't enough to discourage her? Alice was a blunt girl when it came to get power. Maybe if he was able to give her some evidence about how dangerous it was she might stop and look for a more reasonable and healthy way to get power. There was only one person who could help him with this, if he could convince her.

"Don't do anything weird to her." Decus warned to Nickolay as he left the room.

"Where are you going?" The scientist asked curiously.

"I'm going to make a visit to Colette."

The scientist chuckled. "Fine, but don't do anything weird to her." He replied sarcastically.

Decus ignored the commentary and went to Colette. If there was one person who had seen what those things could do to people it was their hostage.

Nickolay followed Decus' path with the security cams and after ensuring he was far enough from the health care chamber he turned on his bracelet and began to talk in a loud voice.

"Name: Alice, Codename: A-36, Sex: Female, Race: Half Elf, Age: Eighteen, Blood Level Purity: Gamma. Special Notes: sociopath and paranoid behavior." The scientist noted. "As expected the exposition to the Cruxis Cristal has corrupted the host and the subject presents small symptoms of exbeulization. The eyes have turned red and the hair has lost its natural pigmentation. The mutation process seems to accelerate drastically after each seal is closed. Unlike the humans the subject hasn't lose her rationality during this process as expected the elf nature of the subject is able to hold the mana increase, another example of the half-elf superiority. However it's possible she will become more aggressive." The scientist noted walking in circles around the room. "On the other hand the subject also presents symptoms of angelification, her mana levels have increased substantially and her metabolism has slowed down and become more efficient. Unlike in the human subjects at this stage the brain scanner shows brain activity related with emotions, in fact the Cruxis Cristal seems to be activating sleep areas in the brain. While this could be good it is possible the subject began to suffer symptoms related with psychological sickness such as psychosis or schizophrenia among others." He explained. "The subject will be watched while the process continues. I hope for the best, if this works I will be one step closer to my goal."

* * *

_**? ? ?**_

_Alice woke up into what seemed to be an ice palace. The floor, the walls, the pillars, the tiles, everything was made of translucent ice and in the final of the hall there was a throne of ice._

_"I remember this place… Here is where that crazy bitch showed me those flash backs. I'm out of here." She told herself._

_Alice walked to the gate to get outside but when she opened it she entered a hall exactly like the one she had just came from. Alice freaked out and tried to leave but the gate closed forcefully. The girl tried to open it using all her might it but it was useless, the door didn't open._

_"C'mon, open! Open, damn it!" She commanded angrily._

_"Why do you want to leave so fast?" A voice just like hers asked from behind._

_Alice turned back and saw a girl just like her but in black clothes approach her._

_"You!" Alice shouted accusingly. "Get away from me! Let me out of here!"_

_"Oh! So you remember me." Her clone exclaimed joyfully. "Then why do you want to leave?" She asked teleporting behind Alice and pouting her lips to her ear. "Why are you so mean with me Alice?" She purred softly. _

_"Because you are an insane bitch, that's why!"_

_"Me?" Arisu asked. "I had to remind you what happened that day and why we must become stronger. I was only trying to help you Alice. Because if I don't, who will? Decus?" She justified._

_Alice blushed.__"What has Decus have to do with any of this? Don't use him to justify yourself." She demanded._

_"This has everything to do with Decus." Arisu explained as she walked away from her._

_"Well, he is a little clueless sometimes but he is quite useful and always does what I want. He might be a little crazy in love with me but I can always use that in my advantage. I don't think he is a problem at all."_

_"Maybe I haven't explained myself properly. The problem is not what he feels for you. The problem is what you feel for him!" She shouted accusingly at Alice with an angry gaze._

_"What!? I don't feel anything for him!" The white-haired half elf retorted._

_"Are you trying to lie to me? You might be able to fool the people around you or even lie to yourself, but you can't deceive me! I know how you feel for him because I feel it too." She said disgusted. "I can feel it inside me ripping off my insides and making me weaker."_

_"Fine, fine, maybe I got a little attached to him but-" Alice tried to justify herself but Arisu cut her out._

_"Do I need to remind you what happened in the Ginnungagap or in the Tower of Mana? You almost died twice for a human!" Arisu teleported away from her and began to shudder, frustrated. "For a disgusting and treacherous human! Have you forgotten what his kind did to us?" Each of her words penetrated her mind like a knife in butter. "You think you can trust him?" Arisu got closer to Alice and whispered, "Don't you see how much time he and Colette are spending together? He only likes you because you are cute, but now that he has someone else why would he do anything for us at all? He is planning to betray us…"_

_Alice looked like she wanted to say something but she didn't seem to find the words. Could she be right? She and Decus had spent their lives together since they met in the orphanage. Would he betray her? She knew the only one she could fully trust was herself, but would Decus betray her?_

_"Do you know why you can't disprove me?" Arisu asked interrupting her thoughts. "Because deep down you know I'm right. I have always protected you Alice." She whispered softly caressing her head. "I am the only one you can trust Alice, and no one else. Because if you do… if you think you can trust someone else… this is what will happen…"_

_Arisu disappeared revealing behind her Decus, who was walking towards her._

_"Decus? What are you doing here?" Alice asked confused._

_But he didn't reply he just walked towards her and without saying any word he stabbed her in the stomach. All her clothes became tainted in blood and she fell on her knees._

_"Dec-" But before she could finish all turned black._

* * *

**Triet, Renegade's Base.**

Alice opened slowly her eyes. At her side she saw a shading figure with dark purple hair and white clothes. The blonde smiled in relief and breathed calmly when suddenly the person at her side talked to her.

"I see you have recovered the consciousness Alice."

It wasn't Decus' voice, but the worst thing was that she recognized that voice. The shade that covered the figure slowly faded away revealing a pink haired man dressed in a white lab coat, it was Nickolay.

"What the-!?" Alice exclaimed. "Where is Dumbo-Decus?"

"Oh thank you it was nothing." Nickolay replied sarcastically.

Alice looked around, Decus was nowhere to be seen. Where was he? Why wasn't he taking care of her? He was crazy in love with her, wasn't he? Then why wasn't he knelt at her side praying for her to wake up?

"Where is that purple-haired idiot?" Alice demanded again.

"He went to see Colette." The scientist replied shrugging.

Alice blood began to boil as she remembered the dream. How could Decus do this to her after all the time they had spent together? Wasn't she the center of his universe?

Alice suddenly stood up, grabbed her crop and left the room mad.

"Hey wait! Where are you going?" Nickolay asked, but Alice kept her path without saying a single word.

"What if Arisu was right? No, It was a dream, just a dream." She repeated to herself mentally. "Decus would never betray me… But what if, there is still a chance, it can happen… But is Decus!" She thought confused but one thing was clear, she was going to have more than words with Colette. "I have being too nice with her, she needs to know who is her master."

* * *

**Author notes:**

**-First of all readers I wanted to clarify that even if sometimes I don't use your ideas is because I don't find a good way to make them fit in. I actually have a word document with all your ideas in it and I try to include the ones I find fitting, but sometimes that's not enough and I can't include them because it sounds forced or can be confusing. Just because I don't use all your ideas it doesn't mean that I don't listen to you.**

**-In second place I would like to clarify that what was happening in Beatrice's flash back was the infiltration in Asgard's human ranch by the heroes of regeneration but seen from the ones you take the clothes to infiltrate. I wanted to give a different point of view of that situation, presume that all the Desians were evil is just a simple way to not feel bad for killing them. Did you notice that all the humanoid minions in ToS and ToS:KoR have something to hide their face? Is to dehumanize the character.**

**-And finally if you go to my profile and click in the link that redirects you to the Dekuari FC in the pg. 18 (in the last post right now) you will find example pics of the Alice&Decus official novel "Never ending thoughts" with the explanation of what is going on. The art is really good, you should give it a chance.**

**-And finally I hope you enjoyed the chapter. As always I will appreciate your support or criticism, that's what keeps me writing. Thank you all.**


	21. Show time!

**Author notes: Fast update! Since I had a college exam I had to study and I couldn't focus on writing so I decided to give you a shorter chapter instead of having you without any update in a month.**

**Thanks for your support and reviews and special thanks to Draconic for the help in this chapter.  
**

_**Anonymous reviews:**_

**Sturm and Drang: I had Beatrice's character and back story planed since I made the first script of the fanfic. I thought that someone like her was needed to explore all the point of views. And the reason why they didn't go to the fire seal in second place was because the first one was the Tower of Mana and the Mausoleum was the nearer place with a seal. And yep, the Cruxis Crystal is affecting Alice's mind and after each seal it will only be worst.**

* * *

**EPISODE 2: THE JOURNEY OF DEGENERATION.**

**Chapter 21: Show time!**

* * *

**Triet.**

Marta, Emil and Tenebrae were waiting for the rest of the group at a lonely table in the inn. They had decided to make Triet's inn their rendezvous point since it was the safest place within range of the abandoned Renegade's base where Colette was being held.

"Why is everyone staring at us?" Tenebrae asked curiously.

"I think they're all looking at _you_, not us." Emil replied.

"Why? Have I done something odd?" Tenebrae asked. Not waiting for an answer he continued, "You know, we centurions pride ourselves on our ability to interact with humanoid life forms just as well as the monsters which we command. I see nothing strange about myself. Nor should they. The fault lies, obviously, in human ignorance. Therefore, it is not my appearance that is to blame, but their sheer lack of manners toward things that are different. And besides, I don't believe that I am strange at all."

"Well, in their defense, you _are_ a floating, talking dog with a big claw on the end of his tail. You really can't see how they might find that kind of…well, weird?" The blond asked.

"Not to mention he's kind of obnoxious," mentioned Marta with a grin.

"I don't know about obnoxious...maybe self-righteous though."

"Lord Emil, that is a false statement. I am not self righteous; rather, I speak my mind. I pride myself for my honesty, you know."

"Yeah, we know," groaned Emil, "I'm the one who always was left with the consequences of your 'honesty.'"

"The fact you never appreciated me for my social assistance continues to boggle me," Tenebrae said with a hint of glee, "I will never understand your kind."

"Come to think of it, Tenebrae, why did you ask why people were staring at you, if you could just make it so that they couldn't see you or something?" Marta asked.

Tenebrae gave her a look that she couldn't identify and remained silent.

Emil sighed, fixing his gaze on his drink.

He couldn't help but question why things had to be so hard. Would he ever be able to have a normal life? After they defeated Richter in the Ginnungagap, faced Ratatosk, and he had gotten sent back out into the world, he thought that he would finally be free from all the difficulties he'd been forced to live with. How wrong he had been. Alice had somehow survived their fight and now she was about to bring about a cataclysm on a global scale; and who had to stop her? They had to. It wasn't that he would rather stay at home and beg, but he knew he wasn't hero material. Wasn't there room for him to just take a break for a while?

At least he had Marta, but she wasn't as cheerful as she used to be.

Maybe he was the one to blame; he had been quite distant since their journey ended. Things were going too fast for him. Every time she tried to make a move on him, he couldn't explain why, but he became so nervous that he started stammering nonsense and pushing her away. And every time he thought about their relationship his hands grew sweaty and he started trembling. He loved her with all his heart. He really did! But for some reason he just didn't know how to handle it.

Marta sighed; she didn't want to harm anyone but she had to face the fact that Alice didn't change after the last fight they had in the Ginnungagap. In fact it seemed it only had helped to reaffirm her power-driven ideology. It was denial to think that Alice was going to change. She just couldn't understand it. If Alice loved Decus, why was she doing this? Why couldn't she just enjoy her life? What was going on in her mind?

Emil leaned his head over the table in defeat, things were only going from bad to worse, and it didn't look like the situation was going to improve any time soon.

"Augh…"

They turned to the door of the inn where they heard a familiar groan.

"You'd think this place was hell…except it's just so much hotter…" Zelos gasped as he entered the inn and fell on the floor melodramatically.

"Zelos!?" Emil and Marta exclaimed in unison.

The rest of the group entered surrounding the ex-chosen: Raine, Regal, Presea, Sheena, Genis (who was blushed and rubbing his clothes nervously) and Lloyd, who was disguised as a Mizuho ninja.

"Stand up Zelos…" Sheena sighed. "You're making yourself look like an idiot."

"You mean more than usual?" asked Genis, grinning, "Or has he actually been behaving himself?"

"Please, tell my hunnies that I kept my awesomeness until my very last breath…" Zelos panted with a faked suffocated breath.

They took a seat in the inn to discuss their attack plan to the Renegade's base when suddenly the innkeeper interrupted them.

"Uh, sir." He said tapping Lloyd on the shoulder. "I'm afraid that you and your friends will have to leave your weapons in the armory if you want to stay here, new rules of the house," he explained.

"What? Why? What happened?" the brunet asked.

"Since the attack of the Church of Martel led by the religious fanatic Lloyd Irving on our town, we decided that foreigners should not be allowed to carry weapons. So if you want to stay here leave your weapons on the armory." He explained. "Goddess… If it wasn't for the Vanguard, it would have been another Blood Purge like the one in Palmacosta." The innkeeper sighed in relief.

"_What!?_" Everybody yelled in unison (except for Zelos who seemed to be too tired to even open his mouth).

"I see, I guess you didn't hear about it." The man nodded and took a page of newspaper that was nailed on the bulletin board, "take a look" and threw it on the table.

Everyone stood and looked at the newspaper, it was from two months ago. The headlight read in big capitals letters: -VANGUARD SAVES TRIET-

"Are you _kidding_ me?" Lloyd asked rhetorically aloud.

Presea took the newspaper and began to read aloud the header of the article.

"The Vanguard saves Triet from what could have been the second Blood Purge. Yesterday, troops of the Tethe'allan Church of Martel led by Lloyd Irving attacked the peaceful town of Triet. Luckily for it's inhabitants, a detachment of the Vanguard, led by head of combat unit, Alice, happened to be doing a routine patrol at the same time that the church attacked the small town and prevented another slaughter of innocents. _"It is our duty as the Sylvaranti Liberation army to help the innocents from the Tethe'allans and the cruel fanatics like Lloyd Irving. As long as we are here, justice will prevail!"_ declared the leader of the combat unit, Alice. (To read the complete article turn to page 19.)"

"_Dammit!_ What the hell!?" Lloyd shouted angrily. "How can that bitch to spread all those lies about m—"

Genis jumped from his seat and covered Lloyd's mouth with his hands before he could finish the sentence. The innkeeper and the rest of the people in the inn began to look at him suspiciously.

"He just remembered something that his ex-girlfriend did. He has been quite mad since she left him for a… candle salesman!" Genis explained smiling nervously. "R-Right?"

Lloyd nodded.

The innkeeper crossed his arms and looked at them suspiciously. "That better be true, because in this town we don't like people who don't respect Alice of the Vanguard."

It was clear that the news about the Vanguard hadn't reached Triet and if it did they had ignored them. At this point if something didn't change Lloyd would have to wear that uncomfortable ninja suit for the rest his life.

"How did this happen exactly? How did Alice save the town?" Regal asked the innkeeper, trying to ease the uncomfortable atmosphere.

"I can see it in my mind as if it had happened just yesterday."

* * *

_**Triet, two months ago**_

_I was cleaning the inn's first floor windows when I saw Lloyd dragging Adria's son, Timmy, to the middle of the central square. The poor kid was crying in despair while the rest of the town watched horrified, already imagining what was going to happen next. The townsfolk might have tried to do something but the Papal Knights had formed a secure perimeter around the area and were much better armed and trained than the civilians._

_Everyone just shut up when Lloyd began to speak. _"_This kid has been found guilty of blasphemy!" Lloyd shouted, putting the kid on his knees with a forceful push._

"_Leave him! He's just a boy! He didn't mean it." The mother of the kid shouted but she was silenced by a punch in the stomach._

"_As the Chosen of the great Goddess Martel and in the name of Meltokio, I will redeem this child." Lloyd said. He lifted his sword, and I was sure he was going to just cut the kid's head off. You know, I never really believed the rumours at first. The ones about how he slaughtered the people of Palmacosta. I'd met him before, and I was sure he'd never do something like this, but…well, then I saw him for myself._

_Anyway, most of us just froze, staring at the scene while others closed their eyes, I looked away. I didn't want to see the brutality of our once beloved Hero of Regeneration._

_Five seconds passed but nothing happened._

_Lloyd cleared his voice. "I will kill this kid in the name of Martel!" He repeated._

_Five seconds latter still nothing. I couldn't help myself but wonder what he was waiting for._

"_May Martel have mercy of your soul because I won't. Die!" he shouted again._

_Lloyd hesitated but finally swung but before the sword touched him a bolt lighting struck, sending it flying out of his reach. Everyone began to look around astonished. Who did it? Who saved the kid?_

"_Your journey of mass murder ends here!" A feminine voice said coming from the skies._

_Everyone looked up and saw a girl dressed in pink and yellow doll like clothes riding a purple floating monster._

"_Tethe'allans! Your abuse ends now!"_

_Lloyd released the kid, who ran to his mother's arms, and looked to the mysterious girl._

"_How dare you challenge the holy power of the Church of Martel!" He shouted angrily. "Who are you!?"_

_The girl sighed and jumped from the floating beast, landing perfectly._

"_I'm Alice of the Vanguard! And I will put an end to your cruelty, Lloyd Irving." She threatened with a bitter tone when she pronounced the name of the once known hero._

_Lloyd laughed like a maniac and whistled. All the knights under his orders left their positions and began to surround Alice._

"_And how do you plan to defeat me?" He chuckled. "For your insolence I will do to this town what I, Lloyd Irving, did to Palmacosta. All these people will pay for your insolence, sinner!"_

_The swordsman smiled sadistically and pointed his sword at Alice "Attack! Finish her! A thousand gald to the one who brings me her perfect and lovely head!"_

_The guards began to advance on the girl, but she didn't cower._

"_You think I came here alone? I can defeat you and all your knights by myself but the Vanguard always fights together and...and…" Alice scratched her forehead as if she was trying to remember something. "What was that other shi—" she muttered inaudibly, "Oh yeah! And supporting each other!"_

_The blonde girl put two fingers in her mouth and gave a high whistle. Suddenly a bunch of hooded men began to come out from the crowd. One by one they took away their hoods revealing a mask that resembled the head of an owl. They were Vanguard troops._

"_Damn it!" Lloyd grunted irate. "Finish them my soldiers! I will take care of the beautiful girl myself!"_

_All the soldiers, Vanguard and Church knights alike, gave Lloyd a doubtful gaze for a moment._

"_I mean… I will take care of that bitc—of that bitc—" Lloyd got frustrated for a moment and stomped the ground various times. "Of that bitc— Damn, I can't say it!"_

_Alice laid her hands over her face and grunted something inaudible and commanded the Vanguard to attack while she went to take care of Lloyd herself._

_All the soldiers fought in the middle of the square as the people ran away in panic, I tried to escape but I got caught in the middle of the brawl. Unable to escape I hid under a table and watched the fight prying to the Goddess to make it end fast. I looked around looking for an escape point when I saw the fight between Lloyd and Alice. I was the most intense and exciting fight that I had ever seen. They both were attacking each other furiously but Alice's skills were clearly superior. She was able to dodge all his blows with ease as if she could see them coming before they even happened. I'd never seen anything like it._

"_You left an opening in your defense." Alice shouted aiming at Lloyd's chest with her crop. _"A Season in Hell!"

_A furious lighting bolt struck the swordsman's chest sending him flying backward._

_"Have you had enough?" Alice asked to Lloyd. He didn't reply. Alice grumbled some inconsistencies and asked again, this time more angrily: "Have you had enough!?"_

_This time the only reply she got were a bunch of incomprehensible curses and pain moans. She had hit him hard. Instead of giving the finishing blow to the cruel murderer Alice decided that it was more important to take care of her soldiers. Quickly she looked around to see how her soldiers were dealing with the fight._

"_Hawky come here!" The Vanguard leader commanded to one of her subordinates._

_The Vanguard soldier got rid of his opponent with a single blow that sent him five feet back and went to his superior._

"_Wha- what do you want ma'am?" He gulped._

"_Can't you see you are wounded Hawky?" She said in a sweet caring voice. "Show me your leg."_

"_I'm fine ma'am." He replied extending the leg before her._

_But Alice made him notice how wrong he was and stomped his knee various times to make him notice where he had been injured._

_"There she goes again." A Vanguard soldier muttered near the table I was hiding._

_"See. You-Have-Twisted-Your-Knee!" She shouted accompanying every word with a stomp._

_Finally Hawk noticed the painful wound he had suffered and began to moan in pain._

"_See? But don't worry, Alice is here to heal your wound." She explained cheerfully._

_The Vanguard leader put her hands over his knee and began to cast a healing spell but Lloyd used a trick to redirect the heal to himself and once fully healed he stood up with a pirouette._

"_Thank y—! I mean… I will finish you off Alice! Prepare yourself to taste the holy power of Martel! You stunned me with your beauty but it won't happen again!"_

_The wounded Vanguard soldier began to leave the fight scene but the pain on his leg didn't let him run away fast enough. Alice took care of him and pushed him away with a strong kick on the butt to put him in a safer place._

_Lloyd charged furiously towards Alice but once again his attacks were dodged with ease. The fight lasted a few more minutes but in the end Lloyd had no other choice but to recognize her superior skills._

"_We must retreat!" The swordsman commanded to the papal knights. "We can't defeat the Vanguard, their soldiers are more skilled and her leader is much more powerful than me! This town is safe from our attacks!"_

_With that Lloyd and the knights fled running in fear and everyone cheered for the Vanguard, especially their leader and our savior, Alice._

* * *

Everyone looked stunned with their mouths wide open at the story that the innkeeper had told them.

Genis was the first to recover from the shocking story. "Didn't any of you find that even a_bit_ suspicious?"

"What do you mean?"

"Lloyd's behavior, the incredible skill Alice must have had to dodge every single one of his attacks, or the fact that no soldier was wounded during the entire fight!" he shouted, lifting his hands in frustration.

"So what? It just means that Lloyd isn't nearly as tough as people think; Alice is incredibly agile and way smarter than Lloyd and the soldiers of both sides were equally skilled." The innkeeper enumerated with his fingers.

Lloyd tightened his fist under the table and began to breathe slowly to try to calm down. Decus and Alice had done a quite a good job spoiling his name. He, who had done so much for everyone on Aselia and who only wanted to help, was seen as a psychopathic fanatic of the Church of Martel and could barely go anywhere outside of his own town. And it was all because of those two.

"Come on, Lloyd," Genis whispered to him, "In his defense, Alice probably is smarter than you. No offence intended, she's nuts after all."

"I don't think that Lloyd Irving did that." Lloyd commented trying to hide his rage and sound casual. "In fact, I've heard that the Vanguard was _entirely_ responsible for it."

"Oh yeah, I've heard that too," he chuckled, "but Governess Dorr must think we're all stupid if she thinks we're all going to believe that some random guy, who no one had ever heard of before, used an ancient magic device to disguise himself as Lloyd and commit all those murderers. Why would the Vanguard, who only cared about protecting us, do something like that? That's the lamest excuse I've ever heard."

"_Calm down, calm down."_ The swordsman repeated to himself but the innkeeper wasn't making it easy.

"You might want to give her more credit. If Lloyd really did all that, would Clara Dorr, the governess of the town he supposedly destroyed, really stand up for him?" Regal asked

"Whatever," the innkeeper waved the possibility off as though Regal had just suggested that fictional rappigs came out every thursday and pranced around town while no one looked. "It was about time someone put that bastard in his place. Since he saved the world he has been nothing but an arrogant, ass-hole bastard who thinks he can impose his sense of justice on anyone."

Lloyd grunted through his mask, angrily stomped the floor and violently stood from his chair, nearly throwing it to the ground.

"Lloyd hates the people who use justice to justify their own selfish goals!" He shouted angrily. "And he would never harm innocents! And I'm tired of hearing stories like this almost everywhere I go! Alice, Decus and Richter were the real culprits but you still think they cared about you."

"How dare you badmouth Alice of the Vanguard! She saved our town!"

Lloyd took away his mask revealing his face.

"She doesn't give a shit about anyone but herself! As far as she cares this town could be burned to ashes, and the people cut to pieces! And she'd probably laugh while she did it! And the reason why I know that Lloyd didn't do all those things is because _I'm_ Lloyd Irving!"

Everyone, including his companions, looked at him in utter shock. As the swordsman calmed down after his rant he noticed that a lot of people in the inn were looking at him with quite angry glares. They stood, taking objects with unfriendly intentions. Lloyd touched his face and noticed he was unmasked.

"Aww man… I probably shouldn't have done that…"

Zelos sauntered over to his chair, holding an iced tea reverently as though it were divine providence, and noticed everyone's odd gaze. "Did I miss something?"

"I think it's about time for us to leave; it is getting pretty late." Tenebrae announced politely.

The heroes casually began to stand up from their chairs, making no sudden movements that might light the spark that would ignite the thick tension permeating the room into a blazing riot.

"What are you talking about? We've only just got here! Let's at least rest a moment."

"I may not have phrased that properly. Ehem," Tenebrae coughed and clarified his inference, "_Run!_"

The group ran and pushed Zelos on their way out, nearly knocking him over and making him drop his drink.

The ex-chosen dropped to his knees defeated, and stared at the broken glass that had once held his beloved iced tea. He felt tears coming out but dried them away with his arm and pathetically tried to join the pieces of the glass with his trembling hands. There was nothing he could do. He couldn't fix it and even if he could the drink was all over the ground. Tears of sadness began to roll down his check and fell from his chin joining the spilled drink on the floor. He clenched his fist telling himself that he had to be strong but it was too much.

"_No!_" he sobbed hysterically.

Sheena reentered the inn, grabbed Zelos' arm and carried him with her.

"We have to leave Zelos!"

Zelos dried his tears and ran away with the ninja and the rest of his friends, leaving the drink behind as various men of Triet pursued them, carrying a variety of sharp pointy objects. Their next destination: The abandoned Renegade's base.

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**I hope you enjoyed it. I appreciate your reviews, they help more than what you think. Thank you all for the support and see you next time**


	22. Through fire and flames

**Author's note: I have been quite busy with the college and the fact that my beta reader had exams didn't help to update this chapter, but finally here is it. Don't worry, as long as I have readers and your support I will keep this up.**

_**Anonymous reviews:**_

**Guest: Thank you, that helps more than what you think.**

**Sturm and Drang: Thank you. Even if it was short I put a lot of effort in making it look bad. About Presea and Genis all I can tell you is that the two "unstoppable midgets" will get some protagonism in the next chapter. About Tenebrae I must admit that my beta-reader helped me with his characterization, I glad you liked it, but he is not even close to Excalliber.**

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**EPISODE 2: THE JOURNEY OF DEGENERATION.**

**Chapter 22: Through fire and flames**

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**The Triet Desert**

"Hmmm…" Decus murmured, watching a moving cloud of sand through the binoculars.

"What are you looking at?" Alice asked, tapping her foot impatiently under the shade of a light yellow umbrella to protect her from the sun's scorching heat in the desert.

They had left the Renegade's base a few hours ago and were heading towards the Triet Ruins. Alice was quite anxious to reach it. After each seal they opened she could feel herself becoming more and more powerful, and she had to admit that it was quite addicting. She couldn't wait to close the seal and get another power dose.

"You should be looking toward the ruins, not away from them," Alice said in annoyance.

"It looks like the townsfolk are chasing some people through the desert. I wonder what happened," Decus commented as he looked closer with the binoculars. "Hmm…they look familiar…"

"And why should I care?" The half-elf inquired, losing her patience. If it weren't Decus she would have already started bashing the umbrella over his head until it broke. The umbrella or his head, which ever happened first. "I have no time for your musings Dumbo-Decus, just tell me how far the ruins are."

Decus followed his beloved's instructions and refocused his gaze at the ruins. "I'd guess that they're no more than fifteen minutes away. Riding Aramis, at least."

"Finally! This heat is unbearable." The white-hairded half-elf commented, fanning her face with her hand.

Decus gave her a half smile and knelt to help Alice mount her flying pet, climbing on after her.

The swordsman couldn't get his mind off of what he had talked about with Colette. She had only confirmed his suspicious about what the Cruxis Crystal could do, and he didn't like it. Considering what it had already done to her—or at least, he suspected it was responsible for her new hair and eye colors—he could only expect that much worse things were in store for her.

He had to convince her to take it off before it was too late.

What if she didn't want to?

He knew it was for her own good, but he highly doubted he could convince her. Any time he said something that could be taken as going against her personal power quest, she always had a strong argument to crush his own. Sometimes it was the death of their parents, others the abuses they suffered in the orphanage. Other times, the years they had to live like vulgar homeless vagrants going from town to town with barely enough money to get warm food, and if they were lucky, a night in an inn. Even if he found a good argument, he had never been able to oppose to her will; it had always been like that. No matter what he wanted or what he thought, they always ended up doing whatever she wanted. All he could do was wait and pray that she might consider his point of view for once.

It had been that way of thinking that made them join the Vanguard, and in the end it had almost cost them their lives. He couldn't repeat the same mistake twice, he had to find the strength to say _"No!"_ to Alice; to say _"No!"_ to his only friend and to the person who saved his life; to say _"No!"_ to the person he loved. Though if he was being perfectly honest with himself, he highly doubted he could. What would happen if she thought he planned on betraying her? He _was_ a human after all.

"Are you going to come down or do you plan to keep fantasizing up there!?" Alice shouted bringing Decus back to the reality.

"Oh, yeah! I was..."

"I don't care about what's going on in your mind. Goddess, I _prefer_ not to know."

Decus jumped off Aramis and entered the ruinous temple with Alice.

The purple haired swordsman looked at Alice as he rubbed his hands against his trousers nervously. As soon as Alice looked at him he looked elsewhere, pretending to be distracted.

"Those… those symbols are quite nice aren't they?" he mentioned, casually pointing at a carving engraved in the wall depicting a demonic creature burning… something… were those people?

"I guess…" Alice commented lifting an eyebrow. She knew Decus enough to know that he was trying to muster up the courage to tell her something. "Alright, what is it?"

"Oh…Nothing, nothing…"

Alice frowned, not buying the answer. "Come on, spit it out!" She demanded. She didn't care about whatever he wanted to tell her; it was probably something about her beauty or to apologize for being with Colette.

"_As if I would _ever_ feel jealous of that naïve, flat-chested girl!"_ she thought with a huff.

However it was only a matter of time before Decus blurted out whatever he had on his mind, and the sooner they ended the conversation the better. She needed him to focus on their next fight and not on one of his delusional fantasies of them having some kind of perfect life together.

Decus bit his bottom lip and gulped, "Look Alice, I think that we… I think that we might be going a bit too far with this. Just a little."

"Geez… not this again," she sighed, "How many times have we had this chat? I- Want- Power! End of story."

"But this time is different Alice." The purple-haired male replied. "You…You're putting yourself in danger! Can't you see that?"

Alice looked up at him, ready to complain but the look in his eyes made her stop: He seemed genuinely worried. Of course he was worried; he loved her after all.

Love was a word that had never meant anything to the half-elf, but that changed the day she saw Decus crumbling before her after taking the blow that would have killed her. She was ashamed to admit it but she had always thought that Decus didn't mean what he said, and it wasn't until that day in the Ginungagap, when it was already too late, that she saw for herself that he meant it all.

The memory of that day always made her feel sick. Sick of how easily she crumbled when she thought that Decus was dead, sick of how weak it made her feel, sick of how a _human_ could made her feel that way. She had managed to convince herself that he meant nothing to her, that she wouldn't care if something happened to him, but that day she was proven wrong. As much as she hated to admit it she only could find one explanation, and she didn't like it. So she put all those thoughts aside and kept walking deeper into the ruins.

"Get away you smelly idiot." Alice said, trying to sound angry. "I have a seal to close," the half-elf took a small Angelic-Aselian dictionary and began to look for the words written in the seal.

But Decus didn't let her go so easily this time. He closed the book and looked at her eyes. "Please Alice, listen to me. The Cruxis Crystal is too dangerous. Just look at the external effects! Your eyes, your hair, what's going to be next? I don't want you to get hurt! I wouldn't be able to live without you."

Alice bit her bottom lip and looked down not really wanting to face him. He was right. "Do you think I didn't notice it? If someone like you noticed it of course I did, but I'm really close to finally getting it. Just a little more and I'll be powerful enough."

"And what happens if you feel it's _not_ enough? I don't want this to be like following Richter into the Ginungagap!"

"You can't achieve anything if you don't take any risks. I can handle this." She reaffirmed, pointing at the shiny crystal over her chest. "I _will_ handle this." She repeated in a lower voice filled with determination.

"Please Alice, I don't want you to put yourself in danger." Decus explained almost begging.

She always wanted to carry all the weight by herself. She didn't want help from anyone. She didn't want to feel weak, but this time it was just too much. If only she would let him share that weight things might be different.

"Let me help you Alice, you don't need the Cruxis Crystal; there are other ways. Colette told me what those things can do. Together we can do more things than what that stone can do."

Alice stopped listening as soon as he mentioned the name of the blonde chosen. The Cruxis Crystal began to shine as she heard a voice in her mind talk to her: _"I told you it would happen, didn't I?"_

"So that's it isn't it? You and Colette planned this to try to convince me to stop!" She shouted deliriously. "You two made up this plan! Then you could have me and she would be freed, isn't it?" She deduced in the most paranoid possible way.

"What are you talking about?" Decus asked, stunned. "I—we didn't plan _anything_ like that."

"_He's lying through his teeth."_

"Are you taking me for an idiot!? Oh well, since you and Colette aren't friends or anything at all I guess you won't mind what Nickolay is going to do to her." Alice said in her usual childish voice.

"What's going to happen to her?" The swordsman asked a little more worried than what he would have liked to sound.

"I have no idea but don't think that you'll see her ever again. Not alive anyway."

Decus stomach twisted a little when he heard the news.

"Oh, and don't ever think that you'll be with me." Alice continued. "You're nothing but a disgusting human. Not to say that you're a _complete_ idiot," each word was like a stab in Decus' heart, "It's just that I would rather be with anyone before being with you! I never told you this but I will now Decus: I hate you, I just hate everything about you."

Decus shed a tear. It wasn't the first time that Alice had ridiculed him, he was used to her bashing and he always managed to cheer up despite what she told. However this time it was different, she was saying it to make him suffer, and she was enjoying it. The person he loved the most, the only friend he ever had, and the person he would die for no matter what, wanted to see him suffering.

Decus dried his tears with the jacket's sleeve and tried to recompose himself. "Y-you don't mean it Alice, do you?" Decus stuttered.

"Look at yourself, you can't even hold up like a real man; you're a pathetic piece of human trash." She smiled viciously. "Read my lips: I-hate-you." She emphasized each word. "You'd be more useful dead."

Decus tightly clenched his fists and closed his eyes, not wanting to cry in front of Alice. He had always tried to see the bright side of Alice's insults, but this time there was no bright side; just darkness and pain.

"Now if you don't mind, I have a seal to close." She pushed him aside and entered in the seal room. "I have no time for this."

"I-I'll still protect you…" Decus stuttered in low voice as if it was a mantra. "If my life is worthless, let me at least use it to-to-prot—" The purple haired man broke into tears unable to finish his own quote.

Alice was about to reply with something cruel when suddenly the Cruxis Crystal stopped shinnig, it was then when she realized all she had told him. The remorse began to ate her alive.

"_What happened to me? I wasn't being myself…"_

"Decus I…I…" She didn't know how to start. An _"I'm sorry"_ would be nice to begin with but instead: "I don't know what happened" was what came out of her lips.

Decus sniffed and dried away his tears. "R-really?" The purple-haired man asked with a half-smile of hope.

"Yeah…I don't hate you." She answered in a guilty tone, she really didn't mean all of that. "That doesn't mean that I _like_ you though!" She retorted when she saw Decus about to embrace her. Decus' mind had the strange ability to change the meaning of her words and transform an _"I don't hate you,"_ into an _"I love you"_.

"But you don't hate me do you?" He asked again recovering his breath and his hope. He needed to hear it again.

"No, I don't," She answered more annoyed this time. She had more important things to think about than making Decus happy, like what had just happened to her.

"You really almost got me there. For a moment I really thought you hated me." He said recovering his usual cheerful attitude.

"Whatever, just don't flatter yourself. This changes nothing in our relationship Dumbo-Decus." Alice clarified emphasizing his nickname.

"So you admit that we have a relationship!" Decus concluded euphorically. "This day is going from the worst day to the best day ever!"

"Yeah! Our master-slave relationship." She explained.

"Still a relationship."

Alice sighed mentally as she rubbed her forehead with her fingers. There was no point in denying that; whatever she said he would manage to turn into a compliment.

However she was worried about the Cruxis Crystal, Decus had made some good points and it was undeniable that it was affecting her. She could handle the physical changes; it didn't matter to her. So what if she had red eyes and white hair? She was still beautiful and cute. What was really worrying her was her mental state. Only a few moments ago she hadn't been able to control herself and she had said things that she sincerely regretted. What if the Cruxis Crystal had something to do with it?

"_No… I'm just being paranoid, it has nothing to do with the Crystal. The idiot just got my nerves and I snapped at him."_ Alice thought, trying to convince herself.

"Well, let's open the seal." She said opening the Angelic dictionary again.

"Alice… Are you sure about this?" Decus asked seriously. "You don't need to obsess so much over power, together we can—"

"Have you forgotten what happened in the Ginungagap?" She inquired. Decus lowered his face in shame. He knew there was no getting past that. "Exactly, we almost got killed by a spoiled brat and her clumsy pet! We fought together and what did it lead us to?"

"But…But I can become stronger."

"I won't rely on anyone. In order to survive I must become stronger by myself. I _will_ survive whatever this damn world throws at me, I _refuse_ to die." She said with determination. "You can leave if you want, I don't care." She finished trying to sound credible even if part of her would never believe her last sentence.

Decus bowed. "I will follow whatever path you follow Alice. I will be at your side until I shed my last drop of blood." Decus confirmed. _"Though, I would prefer not to follow this path."_ He added in his head.

"Then I will open the seal."

The blonde girl read the summoning incantation of the Summon Spirit of Fire with the help of the dictionary, yet nothing happened.

"Nothing happened…Maybe I misread a word." Alice commented casually not really understanding why it didn't work.

Suddenly the runic circle began to shine. The magma that surrounded the platform began to boil furiously and a pillar of flames rose from the seal as if the gates of Hell had been opened. A deafening roar came from within the blaze, making the walls tremble.

When the flames finally receded they revealed the Fire Spirit, Efreet. His legless body floated in the air, his muscular arms crossed and a scornful look on his face. His skin was the color of stagnant magma and two long horns reminiscent of those of a bull jutted from both sides of his head. If they didn't already know he was the Spirit of Fire they would have sworn they were standing before the devil himself.

"Why have you called me, summoner? I already hold a pact; I have no interest in this. Leave now," Efreet commanded.

"I have no interest in making any pact Mr. big spirit." Alice said rubbing her feet acting like a shy girl.

"Then why have you called me! Speak!"

"I have come here to destroy you and close your seal." She answered smiling evilly but without losing her childlike voice.

"You two must be the ones my summoner warned me about. The ones who sent Eclipsys and Sylph to Muspelheim!"

"Muspel-what? We just killed them."

"Muspelheim Dumbo-Decus. In mythology it's the place where elemental beings go when they die." Alice explained.

"Silence mortals!" Efreet bellowed, "You understand so very little. Your journey may have closed the seals, but my brethren are far from being deceased!"

"How rude…"

"I will incinerate you both where you stand, and put a stop to your madness! Your quest for power and destruction ends here!" The summon spirit proclaimed loudly.

The body of the summon spirit began to burn. His skin crusted with black ash, the cracks that soon broke across his dark skin revealing dancing flames. The fire burned brighter and brighter until it pushed the crushed ash off his body in a spectacular explosion. The flames blazing around Efreet's skeletal new body. The flames wrapped themselves around an obsidian skeleton as matching bat wings unfurled from his back. But most terrifying of all was the demonic skull. Almost like the skull of an ox but with the jaws of a dragon. Blue flames danced in his eye sockets, standing out among the red, orange and black colors.

"That's what I call an extreme make over," Decus noted looking at Alice in the corner of his eye who rolled her eyes unimpressed.

The summon spirit extended his right arm, created a ball of white fire and squeezed transforming it into a long black staff with a horned skull on the top. The skull opened its mouth and a curved incandescent blade emerged, blazing bright red. Efreet pointed his scythe at his two opponents.

"I shall reduce you to ashes!" Efreet proclaimed dramatically. His voice had remained unchanged throughout his transformation, but it now seemed to have its own echo, a second deeper voice speaking underneath his own. The elemental charged the duo and released a strong blow with his scythe. The burning blade was halted by Decus.

"Is that all you got?" The purple haired man said smiling, even as he was slowly pushed back by the scythe. A bead of sweat rolled down Decus' face and fell from his cheek. He was in a really bad situation, but with Alice fighting by his side there was nothing they couldn't face.

"Don't be so arrogant, human! You are facing a force of nature; a power you can barely comprehend." Efreet shouted as he raised his left arm and created a ball of fire.

Alice, noticing that the spirit was busy with Decus, created a runic portal in front of herself and shouted, "Freeze Lanzer." Causing multiple shards of ice to launch at Efreet. However the summon spirit was much faster than what Alice had predicted and covered his body with one wing, the blazing membrane between the joints blocked the attack.

"What!?" Alice exclaimed incredulous. How could he block one of her spells so easily? The ice shards should have torn apart his wing.

The summon spirit beat his wing sending dozens of fireballs at Alice, barely giving her any time to react and raise an wall of frost that exploded as the blasts made impact.

"_Again?"_ The half-elf thought, why were her spells suddenly so weak?

The force of the explosion sent Alice reeling backwards and before she knew it, she had stumbled off the edge of the platform. The half-elf covered her hand with ice claws and dug her fingers into the ledge. The magma was boiling just a few feet below her like a burning pool of death.

She screamed, floundering as the ice of her claws began to melt.

Decus looked back to Alice how was slowly losing the grip. "Alice!" he used every ounce of strength he had in him to push Efreet's weapon away and run to help his beloved but it was useless; despite the strength that the exphere gave him, he couldn't overpower the summon spirit's physical strength.

The demonic summon spirit charged a ball of fire on his free hand and threw it at Decus. "By fire be purged!"

"Damn!" Unable to move away the purple haired man could only watch as the ball of fire struck him. His body was sent flying, rolling toward the side of the platform giving off trails of smoke.

Efreet looked down the still body of Decus and slowly drifted toward him

"I'm surprised you are alive after receiving one of my fire spells directly." Efreet said as he tightened his grip the scythe's staff.

Decus coughed and used his sword to prop himself on his knee. Despite the strong hit he had just taken and how negative his situation looked like he could only think of one thing: Alice.

"But not even a fire adept can withstand a direct blow of my scythe: _Hellfire_." The spirit shouted raising his weapon ready to give the finishing blow. "Now perish, insect!"

Efreet swung down the scythe when he was suddenly struck by a lightning bolt that made him miss the blow by a few inches. Decus took advantage of the moment and ran to his savior. Efreet placed his hand over the part of the skull that was hit by the bolt as it slowly cracked and began to bleed magma. The summon spirit roared furiously and looked to the one that had hit him.

"Did you think you could get rid of me so easily?" Alice said breathing heavily but still managing to use her taunting voice as Decus joined her.

"Thank you Alice."

"There is nothing to thank, I saw an opening and I attacked, I was just using you as bait." The blonde justified coldly as she cleaned her face covered with sweat with her sleeve.

"Well, then I'm glad to have been useful to you." The purple haired swordsman said, trying to be positive. "And you still saved my life, so thank you anyway."

"Whatever just—" Alice cut her own quote to dry her sweat again. "Damn…"

"Do you feel okay Alice?" Decus asked, concerned. "You're sweating a lot."

Efreet let out a grunt. "It's begun to take effect then."

"What are you talking about!?" Decus inquired to the summon spirit.

"I'm sure that your companion noticed it the moment our fight began."

"What does he mean by that, Alice?"

"I have no idea." The blonde grumbled as she felt her strength slowly leaving her.

"I have been raising the temperature of this room since our fight began. You haven't noticed it because you are a fire adept, but unlike you, your companion is an ice adept, making her especially vulnerable to high temperatures." Efreet explained.

Alice fell to one of her knees, no longer able to stand.

"Alice!" Decus exclaimed worried.

The swordsman tried to help Alice to stand up but the blonde girl rejected his help and stood up by herself, staggering.

"You should have realized sooner why your ice spells had such feeble effects," Efreet said to the blonde half-elf. "You are in the heart of the seal of fire, your ice spells can't be performed properly here."

"_I'll kill you for this!_" Alice shrieked, falling to her knees again.

"How do you intend on carrying out a threat when you cannot even stand on your own feet?" Efreet growled.

Decus stood up, took off his jacket, loosened his choker and put himself between Efreet and Alice as his sword was slowly engulfed by violet flames. "I'll deal with him by myself Alice, don't worry." He ensured smiling kindly.

Alice would have liked to reply, but she was already having a hard time breathing. The blonde clenched her fist and punched the floor angrily. As humiliating as it was for her, she had no other option but to leave it in his hands.

"Your time has come!" The summon spirit roared in his echoing voice.

Decus and Efreet charged toward each other and their ignited weapons collided against each other, releasing sparks on impact. They fought each other in an infernal fire dance as their weapons left trails of fire in their wake, each blow creating a concentrated explosion until both weapons clashed in a loud clang. Both combatants braced themselves as their weapons locked, each trying to push their opponent's weapon in a contest of brute strength. Just as before, Efreet began pushing Decus toward the edge of the platform. He dug his heels into the masonry, but Efreet was unquestionably stronger than him and he continued to slide further toward the edge.

Suddenly the dark purple flames of Decus' sword began to extend through Efreet's scythe and consume its flames.

The demon like spirit flapped backwards and inspected his weapon. Only one being had ever been able to disable his flames the way Decus' sword had, and that had been during the Great War. To think that a human could do the same was inconceivable, but more than that, it presented a threat far greater than he had originally anticipated.

"Those flames…" Efreet grunted.

"Do you like them?" Decus asked with an arrogant smile. "I've never been able to control them until a few days ago. I have no idea what they are, all I know is that they're as spectacular as I am."

"I mustn't take any chances!" Efreet engulfed the blade of his scythe in an intense and blinding fire and charged at Decus like a meteor holding his scythe above his head, "Incinerate all! _Blazing Judgment_!"

The purple haired swordsman grabbed the staff with one hand and halted the blow. The fire spirit watched in disbelief as the human stopped his blow with a single hand.

"I don't know what you're talking about when you say you can't take any chances, but I won't let you hurt Alice." Decus said. "Be gone! Ausbruch!"

Decus engulfed his sword with purple flames and released all the energy accumulated in a horizontal blow that Efreet stopped with his weapon. The swordsman stood stunned in silence.

"Don't think that you are the only one protecting something important half-blood!"

"Half-blood?" Decus asked intrigued. "I'm not a half-elf! Why are you calling me half-blood?"

"Who said that you were a half-elf?" Efreet rumbled almost amused despite the danger. The young man had no idea of the blood that ran through his veins. "Don't worry, I will send you where your kind belongs." The summon spirit pushed away Decus and raised his scythe. "Perish!"

"What the-"

Decus dodged the blow by a few inches, barely escaping being impaled. The enormous scythe wedged itself into the floor. Efreet tugged on the shaft and after a few moments freed the rest of his scythe. An action that did not go unnoticed by Decus. It was a risky trick, but it was a simple strategy and it might even give him enough time to land a hit.

The swordsman waited till the summon spirit attacked again and then did what he was best at: acting. He began to parry and dodge most of the blows while he let Efreet hit him with the less dangerous attacks making him gain confidence and when he saw that the spirit began to be overconfident he let an obvious opening in his cover above him.

Noticing his opening, Efreet raised his scythe to impale Decus upside down.

"_Perfect."_ Decus thought.

Decus heaved his body out of the way, rolling aside with unexpected speed, making the spirit lodge the blade of the scythe in the stonework again. Decus then used the flat of his blade to hammer Efreet's scythe deeper into the floor.

"Now I got you." Decus said smiling, eager to do some damage.

Surprisingly for the swordsman Efreet began to chuckle. Suddenly the ground under him began to tremble and crack.

"Oh, shi-"

"Eruption!" The summon spirit finally roared.

The ground under Decus blew up throwing him away and making him drop the sword. Decus stood up quickly and tried to get it back but Efreet dashed toward him and struck him with with his blazing arm, sending him further away from his weapon.

The summon spirit flew towards the blue-eyed man who was panting and coughing all on fours unable to even stand up.

"I will put you out of your misery with my own hands."

The summon spirit took Decus by the throat with his scorching skeletal hands and raised him above the floor and intensified his body's flames.

Decus began to scream in pain as his clothes began to burn and engulfed him in smoke.

"You might be a fire adept but not even you can survive the heat of my flames directly." Efreet strengthened his flames again and elicited another howl of pain from Decus. Efreet glared at Decus, "I will incinerate you and then burn the greedy half-elf until there is nothing left of either of you but piles of ash. You both with die here: The seal of fire will be your tomb!"

"Alice…" Decus choked, "I…c-can't…die…"

"What are you babbling?" The summon spirit muttered shaking Decus, "Burn!" intensifying his flames for a third time and engulfing Decus' body entirely.

Efreet gave a huff of satisfaction, tasting victory when Decus' hand grabbed his skeletal arm with an iron grip.

"How-?"

"You have threatened the wrong person." Decus said in a cold voice raising his sight slowly until his eyes met his enemy's. "You may do what you want with me, but _no one_ threatens Alice."

Efreet couldn't believe it, how could he be alive?

Suddenly the flames that covered Decus turned black, and for the first time in his long existence, Efreet was burned.

The summon spirit bellowed in shock as Decus' purple flames began to burn the summon spirit hand. Unable to hold him any longer he threw Decus away and flew back to his scythe but the arm he extended to grasp it with was lopped it off with his sword.

The summon spirit roared making the whole chamber tremble.

"I will destroy you!" Efreet shouted enraged. "_I will annihilate you both here and now!_"

The summon spirit flew backwards putting some distance between himself and the swordsman.

Decus began to walk towards him stolidly, covered by a dark aura of energy.

The summon spirit opened his mouth, charged a ball of fire and spat it at Decus who made it dissolve into purple embers with a blow of his sword.

The summon spirit watched it in disbelief.

Suddenly Decus' purple aura exploded, rising to the top of the room like a pillar of flames. His eyes shine with a lurid purple glow and in his face there was not a single trace of emotion but rage and hatred.

"You have no idea what you are doing!" Efreet roared furiously, "The power you casually use against me now will destroy this world! If you defeat me here, the world as you know it will disappear!"

Decus didn't utter a single world. He raised his sword and released all the energy accumulated in a horizontal blow that bisected Efreet and left a trail of purple flames down the length of the platform.

As Efreet's body began to collapse on the floor and the purple flames began to consume his body, he was left with no doubts about the nature of Decus' power. He raised his undamaged arm.

"I mustn't…lose…must not…allow…" The summon spirit rumbled as his body finally collapsed, shattering hundreds of charred pieces across the floor.

The purple haired swordsman helped Alice stand up. In any other situation she would have resisted his help, but she felt too weak.

"Let's go Alice." Decus put her arm over his shoulder and walked with her until they reached the exit of the fire seal. As soon as they crossed the entrance and were back in the desert, Alice began to feel her strength returning and pulled away from Decus.

"Get your hands off me." The half-elf groaned as she tried to recover her breath. "I can walk on my own."

"You shouldn't be so hard on yourself my darling." Decus said, truly concerned.

The lover tried to help Alice again but she stepped backwards to put distance between them.

"Don't call me that! I'm not your darling! Do you think I need you!?" She complained. "I don't need _anyone!_"

"What are you talking about?" Decus pouted sadly. Why did she have to be like that? Why couldn't she accept his help?

The Cruxis Crystal began to shine again. "Do you think that just because you can fight in the fire temple it makes you stronger than me?"

"I-I-I—" Decus stuttered.

"You can't—" Suddenly Alice quavered and fell on her knees, hand over her chest as she began to moan in pain.

"Alice!" Decus cried and knelt at her side. It was just like the last time at the Balcaruf Mausoleum. "Alice! What's going on!?"

The white haired half-elf collapsed into the sand, the red glow of the Cruxis Crystal shining through her fingers.

* * *

_**Author's note:**_** Well, I just wanted to say that without you I wouldn't have come this far, thank you everyone for reading, supporting and reviewing this fic. With that said I will leave you now until the next chapter with the mental image of Decus dancing the "Opa Gamgnam style", because we all know he would do it to try to seduce Alice.**


	23. Countdown

**Author's note: I normaly wouldn't upload again a chapter, but with the help of my second beta reader I have added more than 2.000 words to this chapter and I thought that I should upload it again instead of just add the changes. If you don't read it you won't lose any meaningful content. **

**Added content: Better description, more interaction between some characters, and DecusxAlice hints.**

_**Anonymous reviews:**_

**Hana:**_**Thank you! I'm glad to hear that I try to do my best not only with Decus and Alice but with all the characters. I think that they all deserve respect as characters and writers never should interpose their personal opinion above the reader experience. That being said, I'm a Sheelos fan myself so I try my best. **__**(You saved two puppies with your review)**_

**Sturm and Drang:**_**Presea and Genis will get more screen time this chapter but not as much as I would have liked, the chapter didn't come out as I planned it but they will get more action in the next few chapters.**_

_**You said that the fight against Efreet was lackluster and after reading it I found that you were right, it could be much better, so I put my hands on it and changed it. When I say that I appreciate people reviews and criticism I mean it. I don't mind to change the content of a chapter if it doesn't change the integrity of the fic and the following chapters.**_

**And now let's begin with the chapter but not without giving first credit to "Draconic" who sent me an introduction to this chapter that I couldn't refuse to add.**

* * *

**EPISODE 2: THE JOURNEY OF DEGENERATION.**

**Chapter 23: Countdown**

**The Triet Desert**

"You had to take off the mask, _didn't you_ Lloyd! You just _had_ to take off the mask!" Zelos shouted, panting heavily as the group stopped to rest, hiding from the angry mob behind a large sand dune.

"I couldn't take it anymore! What was I supposed to do? Just sit there and take their abuse?"

"It's important to be able to keep a hold on yourself," Raine explained. "Even in the most trying of times, people must always be sure not to let their emotions get the better of them."

"Yeah! What she said!" Zelos agreed.

"You're just upset because he inadvertently ruined your iced-tea break," Genis said slyly.

"Just shut up, Brat," Zelos grumbled, smacking Genis over the head and eliciting a yelp of pain from the short half-elf.

"Hey, Tenebrae?" Emil asked, hand raised even as he leaned over to catch his breath.

"Yes, Emil," the centurion answered casually. "Is there something that I can do for you?"

"Well, couldn't you have just obscured their eyesight so that they couldn't follow us?"

"Of course! I am the Centurion of darkness and can therefore manipulate shadows, cause blindness, both temporary and permanent, make day appear as night, and cause various other phenomena associated with the dark."

"Then why didn't you?" He groaned. "Now we're stuck running from a bunch of angry men with swords and shovels through a desert!"

"Well, I was having a look at you back at the inn and I noticed that you really did need some exercise. You look almost out of shape."

"Gee, thanks…" he grumbled.

"Once again, Tenebrae saves the day." Marta rolled her eyes.

"Oh, you flatter me, but your praise is accepted."

"There they are!" A voice shouted. The group looked up wearily to see a man pointing at them from the top of the sand dune. The angry voices of the mob grew closer and there was a collective groan from the party.

"Well, time to start running again," Sheena proclaimed, plucking a waterskin out of Zelos' hands.

"Seriously!?"

After running for ten minutes under the burning sun of the desert Lloyd and the rest of the group had managed to escape their pursuers and successfully made it to the front of the facility that had once belonged to the Renegades.

"Did we lose them?" Zelos asked catching his breath.

Sheena looked back, seeing no sign of the angry mob. "I-I think we did."

Lloyd immediately walked up to the automatic door. To his bitter disappointment, it remained stationary.

"Damn it, the door is locked," Lloyd grumbled kicking the object in question.

"Well, what were you expecting? That they'd just leave the door open and hang up a big welcome poster?" Genis asked.

"No! I was just pointing it out. You don't have to be so sarcastic," Lloyd yelled back.

"Be quiet, both of you!" Raine shouted, putting a stop to the ensuing argument. "This is not going to get us anywhere. We should be focusing on finding a way to open this door."

Everyone stood silent for a moment, quietly brainstorming until Sheena spoke up:

"I can use my ninja techniques and advanced spy training to open this door," she announced.

"You can?" Lloyd asked.

"Of course! How do you think that I managed to infiltrate the Human Ranches? This technology is no match for the ancient techniques of the Igagury style."

Lloyd jolted. "Wow… That's amazing Sheena!"

"I… hmmm… Thank you."

Zelos rolled his eyes and sighed when she noticed Sheena's blush. Anything that came from the brunette's lips was a compliment for the ninja. Couldn't she see that he was just being as nice with her as he was with everyone else? If she kept building up false hope the one hurt would be her.

The ninja took one of her paper cards and stuck it on the keypad

"Everyone take a few steps back," she warned.

The group complied and waited for Sheena to do her next move.

Sheena took a deep breath and put the palms of her hands together. She began performing an intricate series of movements with her hands, her fingers dancing furiously to a silent melody. The paper began to gleam with a phosphorescent blue glow.

"Sheena, I don't think that's a good—" Regal tried to warn her but his words were cut short by an intense spark that caused the keypad to start smoking, with no other visible results.

"And why exactly did you do that?" Zelos asked the voluptuous woman.

"Watch and wait," she said with a smirk.

Zelos and the rest looked at the door and the smoking panel waiting for something to happen. Nothing happened.

"Yeah…I'm gonna repeat my question, why exactly did you do that?"

"I don't understand," Sheena mumbled despondently, "I thought that if I short circuited the system the doors would open."

"Why would short circuiting the keypad open a closed door?!" Zelos whined in exasperation, "If the door's closed and you short it out, chances are that the door would end up jammed. Just for the record, that's like one step worse than having it locked. What kind ninja training taught you that? For the love of…" he snarled in frustration," Sometimes you make me wonder if your breasts are the only well developed part of your body."

"What did you say stupid ex-chosen!?" The ninja screamed, glaring at him like a banshee that was about to devour his soul.

"No! N-nothing, nothing…" The red haired stuttered but it was too late he had already awoken her fury.

Sheena began to chase Zelos who began running in circles around the group.

"And there they go again…" Genis huffed.

"Are they always like this?" Emil asked, intrigued by the pair behavior.

"More than you'd think…" The half-elf shrugged and closed his eyes condescendingly. "They're like little kids."

'_That little brat! Always playing at being an adult,' _the ex-chosen thought angrily. '_Time to teach that kid a lesson!'_

"Genis loves Presea! Genis loves Presea!" Zelos began to mock in a singsong voice as he kept running, his taunting occasionally interrupted by heavy bouts of panting.

Genis's face turned such a bright shade of red that it would have made a strawberry jealous as he heard his deepest —if not poorly kept—secret revealed in front of Presea.

"That's not true! Shut up! Shut up!" the boy shouted.

Presea's cheeks took an almost imperceptible pinkish tone.

"Is that true Genis?" she asked in her typical subdued tone, though there was an obvious hint of curiosity in it.

The half-elf went rigid. "Well… I-I-I—"

Genis began scratching his hair with both hands nervously, desperately trying to focus. Zelos was going to pay through the nose for this! Suddenly he felt Presea's hand on his shoulder.

"Are you feeling sick Genis?" she asked, her soft voice sounding concerned, "You look like you may have developed a fever."

"Well, you see- yes I- wait, no- well, what I mean is that- Uh, it's fine if you don't—" the half-elf babbled incoherently.

Suddenly the door was blew away with a loud bang, and Genis inadvertently jumped into Presea's arms, unable to cope with any more stress.

"Problem solved," Regal said shaking off his hands, which were still glowing faintly.

Zelos walked by the pair and leaned in close to Genis who was still hugging Presea in shock. "So who's the kid now? Brat." Zelos asked, his voice dripping acid.

Genis glared at Zelos and jumped down from Presea's arms, blushing harder than ever. _'I'll get you back for this.'_

"What were you trying to tell me Genis?" The pink haired girl asked curiously.

"Well… huh… We have to rescue Colette! Yeah that's it! Let's go in!" Genis shouted cheerfully and ran into the building in an effort to hide his flushed cheeks. _"Oh my goddess, oh my goddess, oh my goddess."_

Presea blinked twice, not really understanding what had happened, and followed the rest of the group into the lair.

* * *

**Renegade's base, underground secret laboratory.**

The pink-haired scientist put on a pair of latex gloves, stretching the rubber band and turned on the focus that was over the operating table. Under it was Colette bound, gagged and almost naked, her panties being the only piece that Nickolay had left on her. "Don't look at me with those eyes Colette," he said as he passed his hand over her naked body as she looked at him with scared. "You should be proud of your body. It certainly is something special. You have no _idea_ what you've been blessed with."

Nickolay opened a small briefcase and took out a gray exsphere, putting it over the operation table, then brought out a syringe and extracted a light blue fluid from a bottle with it. At this point she was far less worried about her embarrassment than she was about whatever the mad scientist planned on putting into her system.

"Trust me Colette, I'm a doctor," he sneered at his own joke, carefully pressing the plunger until the tiniest droplet of the blue liquid sprouted from the needle.

Suddenly the lights of the room turned red and began to blink as the base's alarms began blaring. The scientist put the syringe on the table and turned around to watch the monitors.

"What is going on…? What is going on…?" He repeated nervously as he watched the screens that monitored the complex. Who _dared_ interrupt his research?

Then he found of the problem: a group of busybodies had burst into the base. However it wasn't just _any _group of intruders. It was the Group of Regeneration, and with them was the son of the subject #204.

"This… This… This is perfect!"

The mad scientist began opening every drawer in the room, carelessly throwing away anything that wasn't useful to him until he found his mana saber. Confident that he had everything he needed, he left the room, entering an elevator that connected the underground laboratory to the rest of the basement.

"Don't you worry Colette, I'll be bringing you company soon." He informed with an eerie giddiness as the door of the elevator closed behind him.

She didn't know whether to sigh with relief that she wasn't about to get poked and prodded with sinister looking instruments and an even more sinister looking exosphere, or to panic over what he planned to do to her friends.

* * *

**Renegade's base, main floor.**

Meanwhile the Group of Regeneration was walking through the labyrinthine metallic corridors of the base without course.

"I had forgotten how huge this place was," Lloyd commented casually.

"You guys have been here before?" Emil asked, looking around in wonder at the complex magi-technology covering every surface of the facility.

"Yeah. This was the base of a half-elf organization leaded by Yuan named _'The Renegades'_," Lloyd replied absently.

"The same Yuan that helped us and was guarding the Great Tree?"

"Yeah, same guy. We had our differences at the beginning of our journey, but we ended getting along," Lloyd explained. "It's a long story, but I might be able to tell you about it another time."

"Speak for yourself Lloyd, some of us just tolerate him." Raine clarified.

Everyone stopped at Raine's comment; only Regal, Presea, Zelos and Tenebrae seemed unimpressed about her comment.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm sorry Lloyd, but I still can't forgive what he and his organization did. They disguised themselves as Desians, killed innumerable people, and attempted to murder Colette back in Iselia. For almost every time he saved our lives, he betrayed us. I appreciate the help he gave us, but I cannot condone his actions."

Lloyd stood in silence looking down. She was right.

"He did all that?" Marta asked, surprised, put a hand over her mouth; not able to believe her ears. "I mean, I found him a little weird, but I never thought that someone who helped us could something like that."

"Raine is telling the truth. He and my father, Kratos, were also behind the deaths of thousands of innocents for many years. Their actions caused the deaths of countless people, both directly and indirectly, but in the end they helped us to save Aselia and rejoin the two worlds. I don't excuse their actions either, but I can't ignore that fact." Lloyd explained. "But I decided to forgive them for what they did, hatred only breeds more hatred right?_'Dwarven Vow #17: 'You have to be strong to fight your enemies but stronger to forgive them'_."

Silence filled the corridor.

"As much as I enjoy uncomfortable situations, I'm afraid that I must interrupt this one," Tenebrae said. "I highly doubt that this is the best time to argue about this. Must I remind you why are we here?"

"Paw-Pad is right," Presea corroborated.

"Hey! Words _can_ hurt you know," Tenebrae complained in a mock hurt voice.

"Look, guys, just be quiet. We can't get distracted; we're here to save Colette."

Zelos nodded, "True. Although _I_ still owe one Alice for what she did to my sis. I can't wait to kick her pretentiously cute butt."

Lloyd clenched his fist. "Right! Let's keep going."

Everyone except for Raine began to walk.

"Is what the boy said troubling you?" Tenebrae asked, materializing out of a shadow.

"No, it's not that…" Raine sighed, "It's that while he _has_ matured a lot, he's still an idealist. While I like that about him, it also worries me."

"By which you mean to say that his standards may one day grow too high?"

"Not necessarily. While that _is_ a possibility and he may end up alienating himself from his friends, I'm more worried that one day he'll try too hard, or end up unsuccessful in a dire situation and won't be prepared for the consequences. He needs to learn to have some common sense."

"Ah," Tenebrae responded simply before dissolving and reappearing at Emil's side as though he had never left. Raine moved briskly to catch up.

The group wandered about the futuristic halls aimlessly until Lloyd finally recognized one of the doors.

"Aha! These are Yuan's personal quarters," Lloyd said as he ran closer. "It might be a good place to start looking for clues." The group entered the room. The door closed behind them and they suddenly found themselves in complete darkness.

"Okay, I can't see a thing," Emil said, reaching up to feel for anything on the wall, "Has anyone found the switch?"

"Why are you all so uncomfortable about being in the darkness, I prefer the room just the way it is," Tenebrae commented.

"I'll agree with that. Nothing more fun than the stuff you can do in a dark room," Zelos added flirtatiously.

Suddenly Sheena felt a hand groping her ass, and as if it was a reflexive reaction, she turned around and smacked Zelos so hard that he noticed that he was on the floor before his nerves had even registered that his face was in pain. To everyone's surprise, the action also turned the lights on. The question of how she managed to pick Zelos out of the eight other people in the room occurred to nobody.

"Ow! What was that for?" Zelos complained from the floor caressing his check.

"You know why! Did you think that you could grope me without facing any consequences!?"

Emil gulped, a few beads of sweat forming on his brow. "Er… th-that was me Sheena, I-I was looking for the switch and I think I accidentally touched your butt. I'm really, _really_ sorry."

The ninja turned back and looked at the ashamed teen.

"Oh, don't worry, it's nothing," she said, rolling her eyes.

"_Nothing!?_ Are you _freaking kidding me!?_" Zelos complained as he got up. "You just slapped me without any provocation!"

"Oh, c'mon, it's no big deal… I'm sorry ok?"

"No way! A simple apology isn't gonna cut it! Since I was slapped for touching your butt without having done so, I think that it's only fair that that I be allowed to commit the offense you convicted me of." Zelos decided with a lecherous smirk drawn over his face.

Sheena's answer was to slap him again. The lights turned back off.

"Ow! Why'd you have to slap me on the same cheek?" Zelos complained, "I have two you know?"

"Let me answer your question with a question of my own: Should I care?"

"Uh, guys… let's just look for clues," Marta said trying to relax the tense situation.

"Marta's right, let's get to work!" Emil agreed.

"One problem. We don't have any light to work by." Genis pointed out.

"No. It is not a problem," Presea disagreed, "While we may not have any light at the moment, evidence suggests that the activation of the lights in this room is triggered by simply slapping Zelos," she walked over to the only figure lying on the floor.

"What! Hey, no! Wait!" He covered his face with his hands, but only succeeded in getting his forehead smacked.

"Well…uh, that worked out," Lloyd said after a moment of hesitation.

"Not for me!" Zelos grumbled, "Oh…my poor head… You know, I think that I've suffered enough physical abuse for one day."

"That really depends on your actions from this point forward," Sheena warned.

Regal sighed, walked to the center of the room, and clapped his hands twice, causing the lights to turn off and then back on.

"Oh! I get it!" Emil said as he figured the system out, "The lights are noise activated."

"You know I had that figured out the first time I got hit, right?"

Ignoring Zelos, everyone began to look around the room nervously as if nothing had happened.

Genis opened the closet and fell on his butt, frozen and completely freaked out at what he found inside. "G-G-Guys…" He stuttered pointing at what he found inside.

Everyone looked at the interior of the closet and their mouths hung open in disbelief. The interior of the closet had been lined with red velvet and in the middle of it was a big picture of Alice's face smiling happily. Under it was a small statue of the goddess Martel and various half consumed candles. The doors of the closet where filled with a bunch of Alice's pictures and the smell of incense that came out of the closet was intoxicating.

"Oh. My. Goddess." Marta gasped.

Emil nodded. "Yeah… this is super freaky."

"I must admit, this display is rather disturbing," Tenebrae added.

"This… this…" Marta stuttered embracing herself. "_This is so cute!_" she squealed and jumped over Emil embracing him. Everyone looked at Marta's reaction, astonished. "Don't you think that this is the just the most adorable, sweetest, and most devoted thing that a boy could ever show for a girl? Oh my goddess, this is super romantic!"

"Well, yeah… I don't know… maybe…" Emil answered not really knowing what to say Marta. She was more than enthusiastic about this odd display, but was that really an appropriate reaction considering the circumstances?

"Be sure to let her down gently, when it comes to the bottom line, Lord Emil," Tenebrae whispered in his ear. Oddly enough, Marta didn't seem to notice, for which Emil was tempted to polish the statue of Martel for in gratitude.

"Hey everyone…" Zelos said in a serious tone, "If you think _that's_ creepy, look what I found under the bed."

Everyone turned around and Zelos pulled out a number of erotic magazines and unfurled a poster of a naked woman in a sensual position with a cutout picture of Alice's face glued on over the model's.

The entire group shrieked, apart from Regal, Presea and Raine who just gasped.

"Yeah, I did _not_ need to see that," Emil groaned.

"What is _wrong_ with that maniac!" Sheena seethed.

"I'm gonna be sick," Genis gagged.

"Look, considering my reputation, I hate to be the devil's advocate in this situation," Zelos interjected, "but in Decus' defense, if Alice's face was removed, this girl _would_ be pretty hot. Although, if our resident hole-seeking ninja here were to stand beside the picture… wait, hold on…" he stared at the girl on the poster, an analytical look on his face and then looked up at Sheena, "Oh, no, I was right, even if Sheena was dressed conservatively she'd still look better."

The ninja in question turned a shade of red to rival the color that Genis had turned earlier, and raised her hand to smack Zelos through a wall. But before she could storm over, Regal grabbed her arm.

"Hold on for a moment Miss Fujibayashi."

"What!" she snapped back.

Not phased in the slightest, Regal continued, "Well, not to be rude, but as awkward as it was, I think he just paid you a complement."

Sheena sputtered, blushing furiously, but lowering her arm.

"You'd better thank whatever lucky stars you've got for that comment," she grumbled at the redhead as she left the room.

* * *

**Ginnungagap**

Deep in the bowels of the world of Aselia where the gate to Niflheim stood, Richter and Ratatosk, with the help of the Centurions, were using their mana to try to keep the portal that connected both dimensions closed.

Richter was exhausted, but if they failed to keep it intact the hordes of demons that waited on the other side wouldn't hesitate for a moment. They'd invade the unprepared world and raze it in a matter of months at best. However, keeping the gate secure had almost completely drained him of mana.

The red-haired half-elf lost his balance for a second and wobbled until he fell on his knee. Aqua immediately left her position and went to take care of Richter. Ratatosk watched the scene angrily, almost looking like a father who didn't approve of his daughter's choice of company, but didn't say a word.

"Master Richter! Are you okay!?"

The half-elf lifted his hand signaling for her to stop and Aqua halted immediately. "You don't have to worry Aqua. I'm fine. Go back to your position, I'll recover in a few seconds."

"But you need to rest more. You're going to end up dead at this rate!" The centurion urged, attempting dissuade him.

"I can't," Richter grunted as he recovered his position and began to channel his mana back into the gate. "This is partially my fault and I must take responsibility. If I must die so be it."

"_For the memory of Aster I can't let the demons come through to this world and ruin what we fought so hard to preserve,"_ he thought.

"But Master Richter—"

"Enough Aqua!" Ratatosk shouted. "He has made his decision! If you want to help him, go back to your position and canalize your mana into the gate with the rest of your brothers," he demanded.

Aqua pouted and went back to her position when suddenly the symbol of the seal of fire shone with a blinding red light for a fraction of second and then blinked out.

"What just happened?" the centurion of water asked.

"Efreet has failed to protect the seal." Ratatosk grunted.

Richter looked to the angry guardian but his gaze soon turned back to the gate of Niflheim. Where a few moments ago there was nothing now was a translucent screen made of solid mana that gave to them all a blurry view of the other dimension.

"Is that—"

"The Demonic Realm? Yes, it is." Ratatosk answered before the half-elf could finish his question.

"All those stories are true then?"

"No, not all. Even if I haven't been told about them I'm pretty sure that those stories you talk about were unreasonably glorified."

"I don't need a history lesson," Richter replied annoyed. Was he taking him for some kind of child?

Suddenly a colossal black winged creature struck the screen forcefully. Richter and Ratatosk jolted their heads up in shock and watched as the creature began to beat its huge claws against the screen over and over again until cracks began to form in its composition.

"Damn it, the barrier is breaking down!" Ratatosk shouted alarmed as he began to channel all of his mana into the screen. A few of the cracks grew slightly less defined.

"Wha… What the hell is that thing!?"

"Didn't you originally come here to make a pact with the Demon Lord? Well, there you have him."

"It doesn't look anything like the creatures that exist in this world."

"Are you an idiot!?" Ratatosk bellowed, "The 'demons' of this world are imitations that _I_ created _myself_! They're modeled on the beings that roam Niflheim so that they can regulate the flow of mana! If you were expecting the demons on the other side of the gate to be powerful versions of the mock-ups you've already seen, then you're out of your mind! The things that exist on the other side of this portal are beyond anything you've _ever_ imagined!"

Richter hated to admit that his ideals were so wrong, but there was no way of misrepresenting the beast that was trying to pound its way into the Ginungagap.

"Take a good look at it. _This_ is what you nearly sold your soul and our entire world to," Ratatosk hissed.

Richter did as he was instructed and stared.

The black creature was immense, and powerfully built, with muscles showing through its armor-like carapace. Its wings were bat-like, and were twice as long as it was tall. If it _did_ come through, it wouldn't just break the seal: The demon was so utterly immense that the entire structure would collapse along with it.

The moment it noticed Richter staring however, the creature stopped hitting the screen and turned back with a heavy beat of its powerful wings.

"Did it give up?" Richter asked, suspiciously.

"Doubtful," Ratatosk responded quickly.

All of a sudden the Demon Lord turned back and threw a blast of blue fire against the mana screen. When the fire collided against the screen all the recently mended cracks reappeared all at once and the demon threw itself toward the center of the barrier, managing to push its entire dragon-like head through.

Richter drew Sol and Mani, and launched himself into his Enduring Autumn arte, blasting a pillar of light through the demon's head, and although the creature was clearly in pain, his assault had failed to do any significant harm. The howling demon lord was hurt more by the mana in the air than by his weapons.

"Damn it. I have no other choice…" Ratatosk grunted.

Ratatosk concentrated and began to extract mana from the roots of the Great Tree in order to fix the weakening seal.

"What are you doing!?" Richter shouted grabbing Ratatosk by the shoulder, as he noticed the green glow beginning to flow in through the ceiling of the cavern, "If you consume the mana of the Great Tree this world will die!"

The Lord of Monsters pushed the half-elf aside and kept focusing on the screen, "You can stop fussing; I know what I'm doing!"

The crack in the seal slowly but surely began shrinking, and the demon retreated. After a few moments, the seal was back in place completely.

"This should be enough to keep it stable for now." Ratatosk panted as he recovered his breath after the exhausting process.

"So, how much did you actually sypho from the tree?" Richter inquired. Ratatosk just ignored him. "I asked how much mana you drained from the Great Tree!?"

"Don't you _dare_ even try to interrogate me! I am the guardian of Aselia. I did what was best for this world! Just like I've done before. The tree will recover. If a few humans and monsters have to die for the rest of the world, then so be it!"

Richter unsheathed his sword and put it under the Lord of Monsters' chin, looking at him with a murderous gaze. The memories of the death of Aster came to his mind again. Was that the reason why he killed Aster? He couldn't believe that he was being scolded, no, _intimidated_ by the creature that killed his friend and then wore his skin. The thought made him sick to his stomach.

Were human and half-elf lives so dispensable for him?

"What are you going to do now, _half-human_." Ratatosk asked looking at the red-haired half-elf defiantly. "What would you gain from killing me here other than the momentary satisfaction of revenge? How would you leave here once your terms of service were completed?"

Richter pressed the tip of his sword a little deeper against Ratatosk's neck. Nothing in the world would give him more satisfaction than cutting the throat of the arrogant Lord of Monsters and avenging Aster's death. The question wasn't what he would _gain_ from doing it; it was a simple matter of why he _shouldn't_ do it?

Suddenly Aqua embraced him from behind. "Richter, I understand how you feel, I really do, but no good will come from this. Please Richter, stop."

Richter hesitated at first, but finally sheathed his sword and walked away, returning to his senses. If it hadn't been for Aqua he might have made a terrible mistake and made things much worse. Losing his temper was not a mistake that he could afford to make. "Thank you Aqua…"

The Centurion of Water nodded and went back with the rest of the centurions. She had spent enough time with Richter and she knew when the red-haired half-elf wanted to be alone.

Ratatosk watched the scene and turned his back to Richter. It was going to be a long hundred years. _If_ they managed to keep the gate closed, that is. If one more seal was broken, there wouldn't enough mana to keep the gate sealed any longer.

"_Tenebrae, what are you doing? __Hurry up!"_

* * *

**The Renegade's base.**

After recovering from Decus' bizarre, terrifying, yet still somehow erotic collage, the group continued their search for any clues that could help them find Colette. No one had found anything useful in the room yet, but before they decided to move on to another room, something shiny on the desk between three flasks of the infamous cologne _Eau de Seduction _caught Marta's attention.

The brunette walked over to the desk and that was where she found something she wanted: a small purple book with gilded ornaments on the corners and a golden heart in the middle. The front and the back of the book were bound together by a small padlock, but luckily for her it looked as though Decus had forgotten to hide the key for it.

So, what was inside?

Driven by her own curiosity, Marta grabbed the book but in the action of taking it, she knocked over one of the flasks of cologne. Unable to catch it, the flask hit the floor and shattered, filling the room with the overwhelming fumes of the cologne, forcing everyone to leave the room, gasping for breath between fits of coughing. As soon as she suspected that they had all left the room, Raine pressed the button that closed the door and wiped her stinging eyes on her sleeve. As soon as she could see again, she performed a head count.

"It looks like we have everyone here. Let's see... Genis, Lloyd, Marta, Emil, Presea, Sheena, Regal, Tenebrae and…" Raine looked around, trying to find the red-haired ex-chosen. "Hold on a moment. Where's Zelos?" The silver-haired professor opened the door and found Zelos completely frozen; face white and the eyes wide open. "Are you ok?"

The ex-chosen didn't answer. His body just lay on the floor like a log.

Presea crouched at his side and began to pinch his cheek.

"Is he dead?"

"I don't think so. Bad weeds are hard to kill." Sheena replied in a jocose tone.

Presea pinched the chosen's cheek and lift his head from the floor and began to shake it as if it was some kind of toy until Zelos recovered.

"That was pretty rough," He complained caressing his cheek.

However Presea didn't react to his complains she just stood up and went back to stand with Regal and Genis who was laughing behind his hands.

"It's not funny! I almost died there!" The red-haired pointed to Regal accusingly with his finger. "I could sue you for this you know!"

"I think you're exaggerating. Much larger amounts are needed to kill an adult." Regal answered calmly.

"Wait what!? It can actually kill people?" Emil asked alarmed.

"Yes, I stopped selling it but then I got a lot of demands from farmers. It looks like '_Eau de seduction'_ can also be used as degreaser and pesticide, it can kill any kind of bug in a matter of seconds. Though now we warn people to keep it away from children. I have an entire marketing team working on it to give a new name with a nice hook for the new market." The blue-haired businessman explained proudly.

The ex-chosen grunted and smelled his gloves. "Gross! Now I stink like this crap. I'm going to need to carry it to the dry cleaner to get rid of the smell."

"Ahem," Regal coughed, "I'm afraid that may take a very long time," he informed Zelos, "My science division hasn't yet found a way to easily eliminate the scent from fabric."

"What!? These clothes are made of Ozette silk! Do you know how expensive these are!?"

"Yes I do, so I'm very sorry, Zelos," Regal shrugged, "If it helps, we are working on the problem, and it _is_ possible to get rid of the smell by soaking them for a few days in tomato juice."

"Are you kidding!? Did you make this out of skunk spray or something!"

"No, you don't have to worry about that."

"I am worried! I don't want my clothes to smell like over-ripe tomatoes either! And on top of that, they'll be stained red!"

"Well, you can at least get rid of that scent in the laundry, and then they'll smell fine. The red stain will fade almost completely after a few washes."

"I am just having the _worst_ day. Anyone want to glue that creepy mask that you made me wear to the arena, to my face? At least then I'll know things can't get any worse!"

"Hey, what did you find in there Marta?" Lloyd asked, changing the subject.

"Oh, this," The brunette showed the book to Lloyd.

"What's that?"

"It is called book," Genis said mockingly, "People use it to write things in and to read its contents once it's been completed. It's the most popular platform for the written documents of the world."

"I know that!" Lloyd exclaimed offended, "I was asking what kind of book it was exactly."

"I don't know. It kinda looks like a diary though," Marta replied.

"If that's true, this is great! If Decus has written anything in there in the last few days, we might find some clues! Let's open it!" Lloyd took the book and opened the padlock but when he was about to open it Marta snatched it out of his hands and pulled it away from him, hugging it close, "What are you doing? This is Decus' _diary!_ He writes his personal stuff in here. Is not polite to invade his privacy like this even if he _is_ our enemy!" Marta explained.

"But Marta, it might be the key to find Colette," Emil said.

"I know, and that's why _I_ will be the only one opening it. We will _only_ look for what we need, and _nothing_ else. Got it?"

"Alright, alright, I get it…" Lloyd sighed.

Marta opened the book. In the first page there was a picture of a twelve-year-old Alice with a much younger, but still recognizable Decus. However what really grabbed her attention was an old and well-worn picture of a farmer with black hair and a woman with red hair with a smiling purple-haired kid between them. Were those…Decus' parents? Marta's heart shuddered with grief and she felt tears in her eyes. It was depressingly similar to the picture that she had with her mother and her father. She was only fourteen when she lost her mother. A part of her still blamed Colette for summoning the monstrous tree that had killed her, but she knew deep down it wasn't her fault.

The brunette shook her head, put those thoughts aside and flipped all the way to the last page and started working her way backward until she came to the last page Decus had written on. "Here it is." She announced before beginning to read. "_Today I've been talking with Colette about the Cruxis Crystals and what they can do—"_

"So she's alright!" Lloyd exclaimed with relief. From what he knew about Alice and her methods, he had reason enough to worry, but hearing that she was alive was the best news he could have received.

"Yeah. That's what it looks like." Marta nodded happily for Colette but also for Lloyd. It was easy to see that those two were a little more than friends. How the two of them hadn't yet realized it for themselves though…it was kind of disappointing. She wanted to go on double dates!

"Lady Marta, continue reading please. This dairy may hold the key to end this problem once for all," Tenebrae said.

"Okay."

"_Today I've been talking with Colette about the Cruxis Crystals and what they can do. I didn't like what I heard a single bit. She told me about the exbeulas, her sickness, and how she and one of her friends lost their sanity and became emotionless machines that only had the instinct of self-preservation. What if that's what's happening to Alice? Her body is changing and each time we close a seal she changes a little more. She's colder than usual with me and has lost her appetite. I can't take any risks! She's all I have! My cute and petite Alice! My only friend and the person I love most in this entire crazy and hate filled world. I can't let her take this path of self-destruction. This time I won't go back on my word!_

_Tomorrow we leave for the seal of fire and I'm going to have a chat with her. I only hope that she listens to me for once. She is everything to me. If anything happened to her, I don't know what I would do."_

"Aww…that is so _sweet_."

Marta shed a tear when she finished reading it. He seemed so romantic and caring that was almost unreal. It was like he was a character taken from a romantic novel. Sometimes she wished Emil was a little more like him.

"So that's why they kidnapped Colette…" Regal thought aloud.

"What do you mean?" Lloyd asked.

"Don't you see it? Alice kidnapped Colette to get the Cruxis Crystal, but since it was linked so closely to the chosen, she didn't have access to its power. That's why they're closing the seals! To sever the links between the Crystal and the seals so she can access its full power!"

"Wait a moment… tomorrow?" Tenebrae wondered aloud, "That's today! We must go to the fire seal and prevent them from—"

Suddenly the ground began to tremble and the lights began to flip on and off. It didn't last more than ten seconds, but the looks on everyone's faces showed the same grim expression.

"Please, tell me that this is a normal earthquake and has nothing to do with the seal of fire," Tenebrae begged.

Sheena put the palms of her hands together and tried to summon the spirit of fire to no avail.

"I can't make contact with Efreet. The pact has been broken." The ninja informed. "They've already defeated him."

"What!?" The centurion of darkness shouted, Emil had never seen the centurion so tense. "If they close one more seal, the world will face a disaster of apocalyptic proportions! We must leave this place immediately and stop them from opening up another seal!"

"Hey! Wait! What about Colette? She could still be here! We can't leave yet!" Lloyd shouted.

Tenebrae looked around nervously. He wanted to save the girl too but the world took priority. He had been given a mission by Ratatosk himself. He couldn't fail him under any circumstances.

"We'll go with you Tenebrae." Emil spoke. Tenebrae was relieved to hear Emil's voice. "We can take care of Alice and Decus while you find Colette. Are you okay with that Marta?" The brunette nodded. "Then that's the plan! We'll stop Alice while you save Colette."

"Are you sure about that? Those two are dangerous."

"Yeah don't worry, we can handle it! I mean we already defeated them once," Emil reassured them with uncharacteristic determination.

"Wait, hold on a second," Marta jumped as though remembering something important, "I'll be right back."

She pulled her shirt over her mouth and nose and ducked into the room that Decus had commandeered from Yuan. There were a few scattered crashing noises, like breaking glass, and she hurried out, closing the door behind her.

"What was that about?" Emil asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, I just did Decus a favor and made sure that he wouldn't smell like evil anymore."

"Wait, you smashed the rest of his cologne?" Regal asked.

"Yep," Marta grinned widely.

"Well, I can't say I have a problem with that, but he may need to air out this room before going back in. Three whole flasks should be enough to make a person pass out. Granted, he seems to have developed an immunity of sorts."

"Now that you mention it Alice didn't seem to be bothered by it either." Zelos noted. "When I was close to him I nearly passed out the last time but Alice seemed to be fine with it. Hmm…" The ex-chosen murmured, "That's interesting."

"What is so interesting?" Marta asked.

"Don't you see it? That stinky cologne really works! After all only someone who really loved you would stand it."

"Now that you mention it is true." Emil said. "I always wondered how Alice managed to stay close to him without passing out when he had that cologne on. I guess that she really got used to it."

"Ahem…" Tenebrae coughed. "Is not that I don't enjoy to talk about the romantic relationship between our enemies but shouldn't we be after them instead? Just something I wanted to point out."

Emil blushed. "Yeah… you are right, we should leave now. Good luck guys!"

With that said Emil, Marta and Tenebrae made for the exit, ready to go to Alice's and Decus' next destination, the seal of water.

"Two less," An unfamiliar voice said, "This will make everything easier," The whole group turned and saw a pink-haired man dressed in a lab coat. "Please allow me to introduce myself, guinea pigs. I am the great scientist and incomparable—"

"Nickolay?" Raine asked.

"Raine!?" the scientist yelped.

* * *

_**Author's note:**_** Well, I wanted to thank you all for your love and support because it's really helpful to keep going.**

**Now I would like to ask you something I'm curious about: Why did you begin to read this fic? And... how many of you are DecusxAlice fans?**

**Thank you all and see you in the next chapter! Don't forget to review, it really is THAT helpful.**


	24. Countdown, part two

_**Author's notes:**_** It has taken me a lot of time to update this chapter, I know it but this is being a bad year. I'm pretty busy with the college and a lot of personal stuffs have been keeping me from writing as fast as I normally do. I will try to update sooner the next time.**

**I have also noticed a lack of reviews in the last chapter from the usual readers. I would like to encourage all of you to keep reviewing. I appreciate your commentaries.**

_**Anonymous reviews:**_

**Sturm and Drang: Thank you for the support. I hope that this chapter leaves you with more memorable moments than the last one.**

**And without more delay, here is the ch.24. (Re-edited with Draconic) We are almost at the end of the second episode. Enjoy it.**

* * *

**EPISODE 2: THE JOURNEY OF DEGENERATION.**

**Chapter 24: Countdown part 2**

* * *

**Renegade's base.**

"Nickolay?" Raine gasped.

"Raine!?" The scientist yelped.

"Wait a minute, sis. You actually know this nut?" Genis asked. "Alright, someone has got to give me an explanation."

Nickolay made a show of being offended by the young half-elf's comment. How dare he of all people insult him? "Nut? That's a brave way to talk to the person who saved your life, Genis Sage!"

"What!? I have a good memory, I'm sure I would remember you if you had saved my life. And how the heck do you know my name?"

"So, you never told him about me, did you Raine?" The scientist asked, putting a hand over his chest and faking a moan of pain. "I should have expected that from you. I guess it was best to keep it our little secret; any other way and it might have been too problematic."

"Professor, what's this guy talking about?" Lloyd asked.

Raine sighed. She knew her past would catch up to her eventually but she really wished that fate could have chosen a better time for this particular confrontation.

"Why, your teacher and I worked together. Though, I'd like to think that she considered me to be more than a simple colleague. We were far more than coworkers," the scientist answered.

"What does he mean?" asked Genis, "Is he saying that…that you and he… Oh no…" he groaned, "Please tell me he's joking!"

His sister didn't answer. The lack of a response was worrying in itself, but now he needed to know the truth. "You two didn't…do anything together, r-right?"

"He's telling the truth…" Raine sighed, ashamed.

Lloyd, who was completely oblivious as per usual, cleared his throat, "Uh, I don't get it. What's going on?"

"Let's just say he's the reason that I wasn't compatible with that unicorn two years ago." The professor answered, hoping against hope that her student would understand without giving further details.

"I still don't—"

Zelos stepped over to the brunette swordsman and whispered something in his ear. As Zelos spoke, Lloyd's face went from a look of confusion, through a squeamish visage, before finally settling into a mask of abject horror. He would still never be able to look at the dear professor the same way again.

"_Gaaaahh!_ That can't be true!"

"It's not as though I'm proud of my past actions," sighed the professor, rubbing her eyebrows. "I was younger. We shared common interests and one thing lead to another…"

"But how?" Genis asked.

"It's actually quite simple," Nickolay began to explain. "Your sister got into a comfortable position and opened her—"

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" Genis quickly interrupted with a shout, slamming his hands over his ears. "I didn't mean that! I meant how could she end up with someone like you!"

"I'm sensing some hostility in your tone and diction there. I for one have found your statement rather derogatory. If you don't mind, I'd like to remind you that I have feelings too."

"Okay, you know what, I can accept this," Genis decided slowly taking a deep breath, "but please tell me that he at least wasn't such a nutcase when you did it."

"He seemed different back then, although he always did have a streak of absurdity."

"Nutcase!" Nickolay shouted, "What are you talking about?"

"Well, I thought that it was a pretty simple colloquialism, but I can call you seven other names, if that'll help you understand," Genis grinned, "Moron, whack-job, mental, loon, crazy, deranged, or, my personal favorite, weak-minded fool."

"Okay," the mad scientist announced with a groan of finality, "I can see that this is about to turn into an _'Everyone Hates Nickolay Fest'_, so can you just explain things to your brother, if you'd be so considerate, Raine?"

"It's a long story…" Raine began. "The only reason you don't remember it is because you were too young.

"When we crossed through the Otherworldly Gate and came to Sylvarant to avoid the racism and persecution of Tethe'alla, life wasn't easy. We came to this world with no money, no food and we didn't have anywhere to stay. Understandably, no one wanted to help us, with us being half-elves and all. I was lucky enough to find another family of half-elves in Hima, and they let us stay with them. It wasn't the greatest life, but at least we had a bed to sleep in and food to eat. Things worked out fine for a few weeks, but it didn't last. The Desians came to Hima, kidnapped a number of the residents, and everyone who had managed to avoid being captured blamed us for the incident. The people needed a scapegoat, and as half-elves, we were the perfect targets."

"I tolerated the abuse for a few days, but at some point, one of the older men in the village began ranting about how we were Desian spies, forget the fact that you were an infant who had only just learned to speak. One night soon after, all the survivors of the attack came to the house we were staying in and tried to make us 'atone' for our alleged crimes. Knowing that death was likely to be their idea of 'atonement,' I took you and left before things got worse."

"I had no idea, Raine." Lloyd said.

"Yeah, why didn't you ever tell us anything about this." Sheena added.

"It wouldn't have changed anything. Besides, I preferred to keep it as a secret." The professor answered.

"If nothing else, this story does lead credence to the theory that no matter where you go in this world, the mob mentality will always be a happy constant," Nickolay added, beginning to feel ignored.

The group continued to deny him any attention as Raine continued her story under their watchful eyes.

"As I said, I had to take Genis and leave the family that was sheltering us to avoid any more complications. With no place to go and no food to eat we had to survive like vagrants, it was only a matter of time before our situation deteriorated further, and that became the case soon enough."

Raine stopped for a moment and tried to hide the sadness of her voice. "Genis became very sick and no matter where I went, every doctor refused to offer any treatment. I had to find a solution." She sucked in a breath, and rubbed her right eye, wiping a tear away before it could roll down her cheek. "So I decided to take the easy way out."

"Easy way out?" Genis asked, growing more and more uneasy by the second, "What do you mean by that?"

"I went to the Iselia Human Ranch and started working there with them we would have a place to stay where we wouldn't be pariahs. Maybe their doctors could heal you."

There was a collective gasp, including a dramatically sarcastic "Oh no!" from Nickolay.

"Sis…" Genis muttered. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Did her sister join the Desians to save his life?

Nickoly, feeling rather proud of his obnoxious behavior suddenly discovered something weighing heavily on his shoulder and turned his head to see the head of Presea's axe resting there. '_How sharp is that thing?!_' he thought suppressing a squeal as he scrambled as far away from the axe and it's short feminine wielder.

Raine didn't know how everyone would react once they knew the whole story but they had to know the raw truth. They deserved to know. Taking a deep breath, she continued her explanation.

"I went to the nearest human ranch. However, having lived without food for several days, I wasn't in very good condition myself, not having been one for physical activity back then. I was sick and malnourished and much of my time in the forest feels like a murky haze. I don't remember much of what happened on my way to the ranch, only small details really.

"The most vivid of my memories in the woods was at some point I encountered a group of armed men and women, and I begged them for help. It's all very blurry after that. When I finally woke up I found myself in a hospital bed and a pink haired doctor looking at my vital signs on a monitor." Raine looked at her brother again. "He told me that you were in intensive care but that he found you in time and you would be fine in a few days. I couldn't have been more relieved. That person was…" Raine pointed towards Nickolay. "Him."

The group turned to Nickolay at his sigh and he smiled and waved his hand. "Hello," he chirped.

"He told me they were Renegades, a group who fought against the Desians." Raine continued. "Personally I couldn't have cared less. All I cared about was about our safety. Desians, Renegades, it didn't matter to me as long as we had a safe place to stay." Raine continued.

"She worked for us as a spy for the Renegades in Iselia disguised as an elf," Nickolay added. "Or did you think that those villagers would believe that they were pure blood elves if it wasn't for the Renegades? It was quite hard to fake all the information but being able to keep an eye on the progress of the Chosen and the movements of the human ranch made it all worth it."

"This is a lie! It just can't be true!" Lloyd shouted. "The professor would never do something like that!"

"Is it true sis?" Genis asked with a sad gaze.

Raine didn't know what to say. It was all true. She had worked as a spy and sent the Renegades information about Colette and the Iselia human ranch for years. She could play dumb and say she never knew their true intentions but it would be a bad excuse; even if they never told her why they wanted all that information she always suspected why.

"I-I just did what I thought was the best for you. I-I had to…" she stuttered. "You saw how people treated half-elves like us. You've seen how Alice and Mithos turned out because of it. I didn't want that for you. I didn't want you to end with a heart filled with rancor and hatred, or for you to be raised in a world that would keep its back turned to you until you had lost all the hope in humanity. I didn't want you to end up like those have-elves who were pushed until they had no choice but to join the Desians. I didn't want you to become one of them. I… I'm sorry. I-I just…"

Raine broke into tears. She regretted all she did, but deep down she knew that she would do it again. She would have done anything to protect her little brother.

"Sis… You did all that for me?" Genis asked crying and embraced his sister.

The group stood in silent surprise. Raine wasn't someone who usually let her emotions free in front of people. No one but Genis had ever seen her cry.

"You did what you had to." Regal said, breaking the silence. "I know how it feels to do something you don't want to for the sake of someone you love."

"I would have done the same for my sister." Zelos added. "Even if that meant turning my back to the rest of the world for her."

The next one was Presea. "No one is perfect. Everyone does what they must to survive. Sometimes there are just no good choices at a given point."

"If you even have the luxury of getting a choice in the first place. Sometimes we don't have choices, and we can end up following a single path. No one can blame you for what you did." Sheena added.

They all turned to Lloyd, him being the only person to have yet to speak. He thought for a moment. And then, to Raine's relief, he smiled.

"It wasn't your fault. You were not the one who killed the priests or chased Colette. They took advantage of your situation. You aren't the ones to blame, not you."

Raine dried her tears with her sleeve and smiled, comforted by their words. "Thank you."

Nickolay began to clap, ever so slowly, expressing his immense disinterest. "What a lovely and positively heartwarming story," he taunted with a lopsided grin. "Now, if you don't mind, I have work to do. Would you all be so kind as to leave this place and let me continue my experiments in peace. I still have a lot to do with the Chosen."

"So you _are_ the one who took Colette after all," Raine said bitterly.

"Well, actually, that Alice girl did most of the work. However you don't look surprised."

"Where…is…Colette!?" Lloyd demanded drawing his swords. If anything had happened to her he didn't know if he'd be able to control himself.

"Oh, don't worry, she is in perfect physical and mental condition. I will return her when I'm done with my experiments." Nickolay explained. "If everything goes as my hypotheses suggest, she will be returned to you in the same condition. Though I can't promise her wellbeing, if something goes wrong, or if any mistakes are made. And the longer you remain here, the more focus I lose, and the more likely I am to make a fatal error." The scientist sighed trying to find a way to word it with the most finesse. "Should that occur, let's just say that she won't be the same person, not physically at least."

Lloyd tightened the grip on his swords. "How dare you…" His voice was filled with anger.

"However, we _could_ make a deal," Nicolay proposed. He stared pointedly at the highly advanced exphere embedded in Lloyd's hand with a look that he couldn't identify. It might have been greed, but there was something about the fascinated, even reverent look in his eyes that made him question that. "Her freedom for…say…the Angelus project. I think that's fair deal. What do you say?" Nickolay said with a clap of his hands, rubbing them together eagerly.

Lloyd looked at his Cruxis Crystal and touched it. It was something he didn't want to give up. It made him feel like his mother was still with him. Without its help, he would have never been able to regenerate the world. However, part of him wanted to give it to the scientist that stood before him. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like a small price to pay to get back his friend.

"Don't. Even. Think about it, bud. We'll get her safe one way or another," Zelos ensured him. Sheena nodded, pulling out some of her paper seals.

"As strange as it feels to agree with this idiot, I have to say that I'm siding with Zelos. We don't have to make a deal with someone like you. We'll save Colette even if it we have to use force."

"People like you disgust me. You are no different from Rodyle. Just seeing your face makes me want to vomit." Presea hissed in disgust, letting her axe fall on the ground, and letting it echo throughout the corridor.

Genis took his kendama out of his pocket, and started bouncing it, ready to start casting something violent, "I don't care if you saved my life. You made my sister cry and kidnapped my best friend, and I'm _not_ going to let you get away with it!"

Nickolay lifted an eyebrow at the small half-elf's comment when Genis began to chant an incantation. _"From the land of the living, I call upon thee in the land of the dead."_

The scientist suddenly found himself at the center of a magic circle. Reacting immediately, he tried to scampered outside of the blast zone, but found that every time he tried to leave the circle, electricity sprouted from the floor and knock him back inside.

"Hold on, this spell is…" he muttered, his eyes practically popping out of their sockets, "This kid… I can't believe it!"

"_Unleash the fury of thunder."_

One by one, all the light bulbs of the room exploded, leaving the room with no light, except for one that emanated unsteadily from a glowing ball of electrical energy above the scientist's head.

"Genis, wait!" Raine shouted, but it was already too late.

"Hold on a second!" Nickolay yelped, "Can't we talk about th—!"

_**"****Indignation!****"**_

The ball of lighting discharged over the scientist who tried to cover himself with his hands, to no avail. The lighting struck him, illuminating the room with a blinding light that forced everyone to close their eyes. When they opened their eyes, all that was left was a scorch mark, a trail of smoke, and sparks zapping randomly near the blast area.

"Done and done." Genis said seriously.

"Don't claim victory so fast Genis," Raine warned her brother.

"What do you mean?"

Genis' question was answered when the smoke cloud began to dissipate slowly revealing Nickolay, who was looking surprisingly…not-vaporized.

"How? I hit him!"

"Impressive. Most impressive," he said, with a groan, looking at his right hand and trying to close it. Finding that he couldn't, he glowered at the short half-elf mage.

"The shock benumbed my hand! I barely can move my fingers! How am I supposed to work in this condition?!"

Genis couldn't believe it. How could the defenseless scientist have survived his spell unscathed?

"You and that blonde half-elf girl are two geniuses of magic. To be able to cast such a spell at your young age is extraordinary."

The scientist looked at the group, everyone but Raine was looking at him as astonished as Genis. He had taken the full blast and was perfectly fine… well, mostly.

"Oh, I'll bet you're wondering how I was able to survive that," The scientist said smiling proudly. "I'll try to explain it in a way your puny minds can comprehend."

"Oh no, not only didn't I hurt him, I've made him start a stereotypical comic book villain monologue." Genis groaned.

Nickolay continued, not paying any attention to the other half-elf. "The answer is simple:" He paused to build dramatic tension, "Science!"

The group stared back blankly.

"Okay, maybe I didn't get the emphasis right. I'll try again…_Science!_"

Once again, the group didn't react. He even thought he heard a cricket chirping, which was impossible because the base's sanitation system automatically zapped all insects in a room the moment the room was empty of any life signs larger than a parakeet.

"Fine, I can see that this is lost on you fools. Anyway, not even magic can escape the laws of science! It's a shame to admit but I was never a good mage myself; in fact, despite being a half-elf, I have never been able to perform a single spell… _However!_ " He suddenly shouted. "Instead of wasting my time casting spells like the others, I learned how they worked, how the mana is able to become different elements, how its particles connect, and most importantly, how to break those connections. In layman's terms, your magic is useless against me!" He rejoiced proudly as he opened his arms up high. "Isn't it great?" he said jovially, his eyes shining with pride.

Everyone stood in silence, looking the scientist.

Nickolay smiled proudly, he had left them speechless. They were finally starting to understand exactly who they stood before.

A beat went by and…

"I can't believe you slept with him." Zelos said to Raine.

"Neither do I," she sighed.

"Seriously what did you _see_ in this guy?"

"I don't know…"

"What are you babbling!?" Nickolay shouted and began to stomp the floor. "You should be amazed by my skills! You should be in awe of my superior intellect!"

"Yeah…" Zelos replied sounding anything but convinced. "I don't think so."

"Gwahp?!" he sputtered.

"You're going to give us Colette back, and that's the end of it," Lloyd demanded pointing one of his swords at him.

"Do you want her!?" Nickolay demanded indignantly, "Then come and take her!" he ran off shouting nonsense about fools and their inferior mental capacity.

Lloyd ran after him without a moment's thought. He wasn't going to let the creep escape.

"Lloyd, come back! It might be a trap!" Sheena shouted trying to warn her friend.

"I don't care! I'll take him down and rescue Colette."

"Damn it!" Sheena punched the wall furiously. "We have to follow him."

An ominous "_click"_ sounded from the wall that the ninja hit.

Everyone looked at Sheena angrily.

"What?" The ninja looked at her hand and saw that there was a perfectly square indentation in the wall she had punched. She had inadvertently pushed a trapped tile with her fist. "Oh no… I'm sorry!" And suddenly the floor opened up and swallowed the entire group.

They fell through a ramp into a large, immaculately white room perfectly illuminated with a heavy, thick metal door at the other side.

"Ow," Zelos groaned, "Why does our resident ninja just have to be the singularly most hole-seeking creature on the face of the planet?"

"I'd say a better question would be what kind of room is this?" Genis responded before Sheena could throw a punch.

There was a clang, and with a deep grating noise, the door at the other side of the room began to open, revealing a dark corridor.

"We should go though that—" Regal was interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps and dragging metal coming from the corridor. "What the hell is that?"

"I think we are about to find out," Presea said hefting her axe up off the floor.

A single red eye opened out of the darkness and looked right at them. When the creature entered in the room only one word came to everyone's mind:

'_Oh Goddess…'_

* * *

**The Triet Desert**

"You shouldn't be doing that Lord Emil, it's very impolite to go against a lady's wish." Tenebrae whispered just loudly enough for Marta to hear him.

Emil put a finger against his lips commanding Tenebrae to keep it quiet. However it was already too late; Marta had already noticed.

"What are you doing with your hand in my bag?" The brunette inquired, looking at the blonde teen angrily, her eyes drawn to the object in his offending hand. "Wait a moment… That's Decus' diary! You promised me you wouldn't read it!"

"I can explain!" Emil excused.

"Emil! How could you?!" Marta scolded him.

"Yes, Lord Emil, how could you!" The centurion accused floating over to Marta's side, a grin obviously present in his voice.

"You traitor!" The blonde cried.

"Tenebrae, don't take me for an idiot, you think I didn't notice that you were with him on this!?" Marta pointed accusingly.

"What? I'm as much as a victim here as you are."

"I could expect that from Emil but never from a millennial centurion that calls himself _The Lord of Darkness_. You've disappointed me Tenebrae."

That comment actually _did_ hurt Tenebrae in the place it hurt him most; his pride.

"Look, Marta I know what I said, but there's something I really have to know." Emil explained. "There's—There's something I can't get out of my mind since the first day I saw Decus and the answers might be in this dairy."

Marta blushed. _"How could he know?"_

The brunette bit her bottom lip. Emil had the right to know. Couples didn't keep secrets from each other after all.

"Okay, it's true." Marta said ashamed.

"What?"

"But before you read it there I'd prefer that you to hear it from me."

"Uh, wait, what are you talking about?"

Marta continued talking, ignoring Emil. "It all happened on February 14th of last year…I wanted to keep this a secret but I guess there's no choice."

_It was the 14th of February and love was in the air. I, like every other girl of the Vanguard, had a big crush in the new guy that had joined a few days back._

_I took a box of chocolates and went to the gym where he trained every day. When I arrived I found him training in hand-to-hand combat with other Vanguard soldiers under Richter's watch. Then he looked at me and took off his shirt revealing his perfectly toned muscles and dropped his hair elastic, letting his long purple hair free._

"_Was that necessary?" Richter asked looking at him unimpressed._

"_I'm sorry if it makes you jealous but I'm just trying to give a good show to the number one in my heart." He replied looking in my direction and winking an eye as he put on the most charming of smiles._

_My heart began to beat crazily, I could barely breathe. The hottest guy in the Vanguard had noticed me and of all the girls of the world he had chosen me. I had been chosen by none other than Decus._

"_If you really think that I'm jealous, why don't you try facing me for this session._ _I will be your next opponent." The red-haired half-elf claimed._

"_As you wish. Pay attention my dear or you might miss my smooth moves." Decus claimed as he threw out some fighting moves at the air._

"Uh, no offense Marta, but do you really have to dramatize it like this?" Emil asked.

"I must concur with Lord Emil on this point, Lady Marta. That cliché about 'love being in the air' in particular got my insides churning like a green slime with indigestion."

"I've really gotta say though, that if you aren't just making this up, you must have a fabulous memory," Emil praised, managing to sound objective against all odds.

The brunette, who had been on the verge of erupting from the Centurion's comment, seemed to settle down a little.

"Fine, I'll try to make it less… explicit. But I don't know if I'll be able to. I'm just telling you the story the way I remember it."

"Okay, very well…" Tenebrae moaned in a very un-Centurion-like manner, "Please continue. Let's just get this over with." Emil shot a glare at the lupine embodiment of darkness. He _must_ have realized that his comment would only serve to further incense Marta.

_I blushed when I heard him calling me 'dear,' or at least…that's what I thought until I heard someone a few steps besides me sighing in annoyance._

_I looked back and I saw the new girl that joined the Vanguard the same day that Decus did. She had blonde hair and was always dressed in pale yellow dollish clothes. What kind of fair had she come from? Did she _really_ think it made her look cute?_

_The girl rolled her eyes and left._

"_Wai—" Decus shouted, but his request was cut off by Richter who slugged him hard in the stomach._

"_That was unfair! I was distracted." The violet-haired man complained, coughing._

"_Rule number one in combat; never get distracted." Richter said coldly. "Rule number two of fighting, there are no fair fights; just the one that wins, and the one that's dead."_

"_Don't get all cool on me, dude. You're twenty and I'm twenty four; I'm four years older than you!"_

"_By the way you behave no one would say so."_

"_Well, thank you. I like to take care of myself." Decus replied smiling._

_Richter sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger before pushing his glasses back into place. "It wasn't a compliment…"_

"_You don't have to hide your feelings for me. You know… If you weren't so bitter and I wasn't in love already, you and I could…"_

"_If you finish that sentence, the only thing you'll ever _feel_ again is pain," the half-elf commanded venomously._

"_Why? I was just telling you that—"_

"_No!"_

"_Fine, okay, okay…"_

_Decus, seeming to have learned his lesson, picked up his shirt and headed for the showers._

"_I don't remember saying that training was over," Richter growled._

"_I have to get ready for tonight. Today is Valentine's Day, the day when all the world tries to be as romantic as I am. Good luck world!" he chuckled. "The thing is, I have planned a very special night for my darling and I and—"_

_I could barely contain my excitement. Had he prepared a special romantic dinner? He was so dreamy…_

"_Save your petty excuses for someone who cares! You're going to practice dual swordsmanship, starting today."_

"_I'm better with a single sword. Why would I need to learn how to fight with two anyway?"_

"_You'll understand when the time comes. Until then, learn how to use them."_

"_Yeah, whatever…" the purple-haired answered lazily._

"_I'm serious, you idiot!"_

"_Fine, fine, I will…Damn! Why do you have to be such a hardass? You've been a pain in the neck all day. Valentines is a day to love, not to fight."_

_Richter frowned and tightened his fist. It almost looked like he had touched a sensitive nerve in the frozen hearted guy. However I was too busy fantasizing about the date that Decus and I were going to enjoy to care about anything else._

_I got to my feet and ran off with my mind set on my future with Decus. My stomach felt as though it was filled with butterflies. I was so happy that I didn't notice the person in front of me and collided with her._

"I can't believe you actually had a crush on Decus…" Emil gasped.

"I'm surprised at you Lady Marta. What an imprudent choice in a man, even for a human. I'm most unimpressed."

"Oh, shut up and let me finish!"

"_Ow…Watch where you're going you worm!" The blonde girl from the gym complained._

"_I'm sorry, I didn't notice you… Alice wasn't it?" I asked, not sure if that was really her name._

"_Yeah, yeah…" She replied not really paying attention to my apologies as she looked around, almost like she was looking for something._

"_Are you looking for something?" I asked politely. Even if I didn't like the girl that much, there was no reason to get off to a bad start._

"_Nothing you need to know about," she replied bitterly._

_The rude answer made me want to leave her with her problems and I probably should have done that, but as I was about to leave I saw the tip of a letter protruding from under Alice's locker and I took it._

_It was a pink postcard with a stamp in the shape of heart. "To my dear Alice, from your knight."_

_Alice tore it out of my hands with a sharp tug. "Didn't your parents teach you any manners!?"_

"_I'm sorry I didn't mean to—"_

"_I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," She repeated in a childish mocking voice. "Is that all you know how to say? You know, here is a good advice for you in the future: If you're going to do something you know you're going to apologize for, don't do it to begin with."_

"_But–But It really wasn't my intention…" I didn't know why I was apologizing to her when she was being so awful but I felt like it was my fault; after all, I took her Valentine's card without permission. "I just wanted to help." I was horrified by what she did next though._

_She took the letter in both hands, ripped it to shreds, and threw them into the nearest trash bin. I couldn't believe it! Someone bothered to write her a love letter and she just tore it up!_

"_How could you do that? You didn't even read it."_

"_Hm? What's wrong?" She popped a chocolate in her mouth from the heart shaped box she was given. "It's just something meaningless about how deeply in love he is with me and how he can't live without me." She sighed in a childish voice. "Free chocolates is the only good thing about this day and he ruined it!"_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_I'm sure that he's scared off everyone else! If it wasn't for him, I would have my locker stuffed full of love letters from all my admirers and I'd have gotten way more chocolates," Alice explained. I couldn't believe my ears. "Besides, don't you have anything better to do? I'm sure that someone who wears a mini skirt like yours has dragged the attention of a lot of guys." She finished exaggerating a kind voice. Who was she to talk about clothes after all? If she thought I was going to leave her alone now she was dreaming!_

"_Actually I do…I have a date with the hottest guy in the Vanguard. And he is madly in love with me."_

_Alice chucked almost choking with a chocolate. "Yeah suuuuuuure, keep dreaming Martmart, keep dreaming…"_

_I huffed and left. I wasn't going to play to her game. Besides, it didn't matter what she said, I had the love of Decus, and nothing else mattered._

"Urgh," Emil and Tenebrae gulped in unison.

"Shut _up!_"

_Later that evening, I went to Decus' room. I couldn't wait to see what he had waiting for me. I could already see us having a romantic dinner by candlelight._

_I knocked on the door. "Can I come in?"_

_The door opened. When I entered his room my heart stopped beating for a moment._

_Decus was knelt at my feet holding a bouquet of roses. Behind him was a table with two dishes and a red candle in the middle. On the top of the room there was a poster saying: "Will you be my Valentine?"_

_I took the bouquet of roses and inhaled deeply, getting intoxicated with the aroma. "Yes! Yes! Of course I will!" I jumped in his arms and kissed him on the lips._

Emil squealed in terror, and Tenebrae whined, sounding more like a frightened dog than either Emil or Marta had ever believed possible.

"Stop making fun of me!" Marta wailed, "We hadn't even met when this happened!"

"Lady Marta, that's not the problem here!" Tenebrae gasped deploringly, recomposing himself to the best of his ability.

"You said you wouldn't be explicit," Emil whimpered.

"I cannot describe how distressing this new information is," Tenebrae scolded. "In fact, there isn't even a word to accurately express how I feel about this in your language."

"This is just so _wrong_," Emil groaned.

_I don't know if he loved it or if he was stunned but we held the kiss for seven long seconds until he suddenly broke it._

"_Marta what are you doing!?"_

"_What do you mean?" I couldn't understand the question; didn't he want me to be his Valentine? "I'm saying yes to your love proposal," Why didn't he seem happy?_

_Suddenly he seemed to realize something and began to freak out. "Oh my Goddess, oh my Goddess, oh my Goddess… What have I've done! What have I've done!?"_

"_D-Decus… Are you ok?"_

"_No! Of course not!" he shouted. "Don't you realize what we've done?"_

_It was at that moment that I began to understand that this night wasn't going to be the magical fairytale that I was expecting. "We-we kissed," I answered simply. Wasn't that what lovers were meant to do?_

"_Exactly! We made out like two teens in heat!"_

"_What? It was just a kiss!" Our tongues never met, it was just a kiss on the lips. "Di-didn't you like it?"_

_He ignored me completely. "Oh my Goddess! I saved my lips for Alice and only for her and now I've tainted them!"_

"_A- Alice?"_

_My heart began to shatter when I heard the girl's name. Decus was in love with Alice, not with me. Tears began to well up in my eyes and my heart felt like it was being wrung out like a sponge. I began to cry, Decus didn't seem to care a single bit about my feelings, instead he kept freaking out over that simple kiss._

"_Ooooh my beloved…" he moaned in anguish, "I can't believe I cheated on her! All the love letters, all the poems I made for her! Now they are all lies. _Lies!_ I'll never be able to look her in the eyes again! How will I kiss her with these impure lips now?"_

_I couldn't take it any longer. I burst out of his room and ran to the outskirts of the Vanguard's base. How could I have been so stupid to believe that he could love me? I felt like a complete idiot. I could imagine Alice laughing at me as she kissed Decus. I kept sobbing and drowning in my own misery until I felt a hand on my shoulder._

"_Hey…I'm sorry, I shouldn't have reacted like that."_

_I turned my head and saw Decus looking at me with a sympathetic smile. However instead of acting like someone mature I buried my head between my knees and continued weeping._

"_I might have overreacted a little, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings Marta." He sat at my side and put his arm over my shoulders. "Don't worry Marta, I'm sure that there is someone out there for you. You just haven't met him yet."_

"_Do…do you think so?" I asked, still choking on my own tears._

"_Of course!" He laughed. "Don't worry, there is someone out there for everyone. I'm sure. He won't be as hot and charming as me but he will be fine for you." I laughed at his comment. "You are a cute girl… er, not as cute as Alice of course, but cute enough. I'm sure that you won't have any trouble finding your other half…" He told me in a cheery voice. "Not like me," He sighed sadly._

"_Why?"_

"_I put all my feelings for Alice in a letter and put it on her locker with a box of chocolates but she didn't come to see me this night." He said sadly. "I…I've tried everything for her. I became stronger, I try to keep in good shape for her, I taught myself dance moves…but nothing works! Why!?"_

_I remembered the letter that Alice ripped up that same evening, it must have been his._

"_Don't worry Decus…She might have not seen it!" I lied. "Maybe it got lost! Maybe she dropped it when she took the chocolates and didn't notice it!"_

"_Do you think so?"_

_No._

"_Of course! Those things happen. You shouldn't be negative and assume the worst…"_

"_I… Yeah... Yeah! That actually sounds possible!" He began to recover his cheering humor. "It's not like she found it and ripped it up! Maybe she just didn't notice it and somehow it got lost!"_

_That was exactly what happened but how could I tell him that the person he loved didn't care about him? How could I tell him that the person he loved would never return his feelings? Or so I thought._

"_Have you tried to use cologne?" I asked._

"_No, why?"_

_I didn't know it yet, but I was about to give him a piece of advice that I would regret forever._

"_Girls love men who smell good, you might want to try some cologne."_

"_Do you think so, hmm…" He murmured. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I should try some cologne. I think I read something about a new cologne with an aroma so intoxicating it can seduce men and woman alike…It might be a good idea to give it a chance. I think I might buy a box before they're all sold out."_

"_Yeah! That's the spirit!"_

_Decus stood up and ran back towards the barracks. He turned and thanked me before running inside._

"_Thank you Marta!"_

"And that's the story!" Marta finished. "Please don't judge me because of that. I was young and naïve and I mistook a crush for true love."

Emil and Tenebrae looked astonished to Marta. Emil's skin had a deathly pallor to it and Tenebrae's body was actually dark grey instead of its usual blackish-violet.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"_You're_ the reason Decus smells like evil!" Emil gaped at her.

"I'm not sure that this is a forgivable offense, Lady Marta," Tenebrae whispered aghast.

"This is just… I mean, there's nothing you could ever do that would make me hate you, but this must be up there with classic blunders, just below never getting involved with a Desian when death is on the line!"

"Can't we drop this?" Marta begged, "I wouldn't even have had to explain this if you hadn't been trying to look at the diary!"

"What?!" Emil gasped, "I-I just wanted to know what happened the day of the blood purge. I had a lot of questions to ask to Decus in the Ginungagap, but I didn't have the chance to ask them once we started fighting! I wanted to take a look at the diary to find some answers," he explained not really knowing how to react after listening to Marta's tale of woe, "You know…maybe I could have found out something about the…" here he paused, almost afraid to voice his thought, "…the real Emil Castagnier."

Marta blushed. "Oh my gosh, you mean you had no idea?"

Emil shook his head.

Marta felt so ashamed that she wanted to die. Nothing could worsen the situation.

"So _that's_ why you always were so indulgent with Decus and so bitter with Alice, hmmm… Interesting..." Tenebrae deducted. "Human behavior never fails to fascinate me."

Correction: No humanly power could worsen the situation. Centurions however could bring about a localized apocalypse.

"That's not it! You're taking everything out of context!" Marta shouted, trying to defend herself.

"You two stop it, it doesn't matter! She kissed Decus in the past, so what? I kissed another girl before Marta too, is not a big deal."

Marta rounded on Emil. "Whaaaaat?"

The girl looked like a volcano about to erupt. To her credit, she was radiating such indignation that even Tenebrae, the so-called 'Lord of Darkness,' was afraid.

"Hmm, I think I'm going to try to commune with some of the local monsters to see if I can find any clues. I'll return shortly." The 'Lord of Darkness' said as he left. "Or maybe in a number of hours," he added when he saw the murderous gaze that Marta was giving to Emil.

"Tenebrae you coward, don't leave me here alone!" Emil shouted as the centurion left the place as fast as he could.

"Leave him to do his investigation; you and I are going to talk about that other girl I didn't know about until now."

"_And I thought that Sheena was scary when she was angry… wow, now I can understand Zelos. I can't believe it but I actually owe him an apology."_

"It-it was before I met you! It was during Martelmas. My aunt invited our neighbors to our house and their daughter came with them. Everyone was drinking champagne…or something like that… I don't really know, I was only allowed regular food back then so that my aunt and uncle could keep up appearances. Anyway, the neighbors' daughter was kinda tipsy, I think she probably had a low tolerance for alcohol. I don't really know what happened…she jumped to a lot of conclusions I think, but we ended up under the mistletoe and we kissed. There was some tongue but nothing particularly exciting. The tips touched for five seconds… ten maybe, but no more!" Emil explained frightened.

Marta could be scarier than Alice when she was angry. He didn't want to check that affirmation though, he never saw Alice really angry and that was a side of her that he'd be very happy to never know about. She was already terrifying enough when she tried to act sweet.

Emil covered his face preparing for the worst, however what he got after his confession was a hug.

"That is such a cute story!"

"Ah-huh- yeah…I guess…maybe…" Emil mumbled. _'Leave it to Marta to be taken in by a vague semblance of romance,'_ he thought, sighing heavily out of relief.

"Don't worry Emil, it all happened when we didn't know each other." Marta wrapped her arms over his shoulders and Emil's neck and brought her face closer to his. "However I have to admit that Decus was right about something back then." she put her lips an inch away from his. She was so close he could feel her breath tickling on his lips. "I found my other half…"

Emil made a small attempt to avoid the incoming kiss. He knew he loved her but what if things went wrong? What if he wasn't what she expected him to be?

Marta caressed the back of his head and smiled sweetly to him. He was still the same shy guy she fell in love with.

Then Marta closed her eyes and joined her lips with his. In that moment all the doubts of their relationship left Emil's head for a moment. He knew he really loved her, he should stop being so nervous about what to expect of their relationship and enjoy it as much as possible. As Zelos told him once: _"Whatever will be, will be."_ He didn't know how it will end or what will happen, but what he knew is that he loved Marta.

After a few seconds Marta broke the kiss and began to open her eyes slowly wanting to keep the bliss of the moment as long as possible. Then she suddenly noticed the familiar lupine face of the centurion of darkness watching them from a bit less than four inches away.

"In the name of Martel what are you doing you perv!" Marta screamed, alarmed.

Tenebrae couldn't be more surprised about the brunette's reaction. "What!?"

"You heard me you old pervert! You-you are the worst! Stalker!" Marta accused the centurion stabbing a finger at him.

Emil sagely decided to stay away from the argument, he had seen this a lot of times and he would end up being part of the collateral damage if he said anything.

"I am not a stalker lady Marta. I'm simply interested on the human behavior on relationships!"

"What!? No way. Stop making up excuses, you old, perverted, stalker centurion!"

"If I were a stalker, would I be watching you without any form of cover?" Marta huffed at the centurion's explanation, he better have a good explanation. "I'm entirely serious lady Marta. I simply find it intriguing to see how those of your race deepen their bonds. I ensure you, my interest is one hundred percent scientific." Tenebrae explained. "I reiterate: I am not a stalker. I am very much unlike those odd fellows watching you through the curtains of that rest house. _They_ are stalkers." He pointed his tail in the direction of a nearby cabin.

Marta looked in the pointed direction. As soon as they noticed that the brunette was watching them they dropped the curtains and hid. Marta blushed. "Oh my goddess, for how long they have been watching us?"

"Since you began kissing lord Emil." Tenebrae answered simply.

"Oh my goddess, oh my goddess, oh my goddess. What they will think of me!"

"You shouldn't be worried lady Marta, this isn't the first time this has happened. You've been seen during many other intimate moments," The centurion pointed out, trying to calm her down. The extent of his miscalculation was staggering.

"_What!?_"

"Remember that time at the hot springs when you thought they were for both sexes? Well, the whole Group of Regeneration were watching you and making comments about your relationship." Marta couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Oh! And your first kiss in Altamira? Well, let's just say that it wasn't as intimate as you thought."

"You liar," Emil groaned.

"So, as you can see, there is no reason to make a big—"

"Aaaarghh! I'm going to kill them!" Marta shouted scaring the hell out of Emil. "Let's go Emil, once we're done with this mess I'm going to take them out one by one and make them wish they were blind!"

Marta took Emil and dragged him with her.

'_Why couldn't I have fallen in love with a normal girl?_" he wondered.

"You cannot deny that if nothing else, her outbursts are entertaining," Tenebrae whispered to him.

* * *

**Triet/Iselia House of Salvation**

"Absolutely not! You may not enter here!" shouted the priest through the door. "Please leave immediately!"

"Please, you _must_ let us get in. She's sick!" Decus begged.

The purple-haired swordsman had taken Alice and carried her for miles until he found the nearest rest house. She had lost some of her memory again and she looked sick. In fact, if he hadn't made sure that her heart was still beating a minute ago, he would have sworn she was dead. Her hair had lost all color and vitality and was now white like snow, her skin was dead pale, her lips had lost their pink color and were now purple, her body was deathly cold and her breath was visible as though the weather was cold.

Every one of the affectations must have been because of the Cruxis Crystal. He was more determined than ever to remove that accursed parasitic stone from her body. He would have a long talk with her, and if she didn't want to take it off by herself he would do it, with or without her permission; he couldn't keep watching her kill herself. He had ignored her lust for power for years and it nearly led them to their deaths. He wasn't going to make the same mistake twice, but first he needed a place to heal their wounds and rest. "_Please!_ Let us in!" he begged again.

"There is nothing you could ever say to make me let a criminal like _her_ inside this house of worship, and a filthy _half-elf_ to boot! I know all the crimes that the Vanguard committed. Lloyd the Great would never—_could_ never— have killed all those innocents in Palmacosta and Governess Dorr has ensured us that it was an impostor under the name of Decus who committed the atrocity that was the Blood Purge." The priest explained not recognizing the man in front of him, after all he committed all those atrocities in secret or disguised as Lloyd. "And that girl that you carry with you is none other than _Alice the Sadist_, the leader of the combat unit of the damned terrorist organization. I don't care if she's sick! You will not pass beyond this door!"

Sadist!? Had that priest called his dear, adorable Alice a sadist? "How dare you to call her that! You don't even know her!"

He came with the intention of entering peacefully and leave as soon as Alice recovered, but that comment about Alice was the last straw. The purple-haired swordsman raised his leg and disengaged the door from its frame with a single kick.

"Wh-what?" The priest stuttered stunned and terrified.

Decus entered in the rest house, placed the unconscious body of Alice on the couch and lifted the priest from the collar with his right hand. "You're just like everyone else," his voice dripping with fury. "You've forgotten your place. In this world there are two kinds of people: the weak and the powerful. I was weak, once upon a time. I paid the price for that weakness but I'm no longer the little coward who trembled in fear, no… Now I'm the stronger one and thanks to this power, I can do what I want. It's sad, but that's the only thing that the people of this filthy world seem to understand."

The priest was shaking in abject terror now, "Wh-wh-wha-what a-are you go-going t-t-to do with me?"

"I could tear you apart with my sword or make you into mincemeat with my bare hands. I could pummel you until all your bones were broken," the priest gulped. Decus took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"…but I won't. And do you know why? Because I'm better than you and the rest of scum that fills this awful world."

Decus let the priest drop to the floor. The pastor just sat there, stunned into motionless silence. He remained in his pitiful position as Decus took Alice and carried her to the nearest room to drop her carefully over the bed. "Damn. Why can't things ever be easy?" he hated being forced to use the violence, but sometimes it seemed as though it was the only thing that people understood.

Decus sat on the bed aside Alice and moved aside the fringe of her forehead. The blue-eyed young man sighed nostalgically. He wanted the friend he had grown up with back. Ever since they began closing the seals, Alice hadn't been the same person. She had steadily grown more cruel and obsessive. Some people like the priest or Marta might not have noticed the difference, but he did; she just wasn't herself any longer.

The purple-haired swordsman looked at the glowing stone over her chest and grunted. It was all that damn crystal's fault and that vile pink-haired scientist! If they never found that egomaniacal creep, Alice would have never gotten a Cruxis Crystal, and they might be living a lovely life together. They had been given a third chance in life and he had the feeling that they were wasting it. Few enough people were given a second chance, and they were given another. It would be a crime against life itself to let it slip though their fingers.

Okay, maybe they wouldn't be having a lovely life together as a pair, but still things might have been nice, like they were before they joined the Vanguard.

He let his hand slowly drift over to the object of his hatred and touched it. It was so easy; it was within reach; he just had to take it and crush it.

The idea became more appealing every second. Alice didn't need to know what happened. She was unconscious. He could make up any excuse! He could tell her that the Crystal suddenly shattered after they left the ruins. Okay, it might not be the best excuse, he might have to put a little more effort into the story and explanation but he could still do it. She would never know.

Decus took hold of the Cruxis Crystal but hesitated. He hated to lie to Alice, and what if she found out? Would she ever forgive him? He promised her that he would do anything she wanted, and she wanted to keep the crystal, but he couldn't keep such a promise, not when he saw what it was doing to her. He had to do what was better for Alice, even if that meant she would hate him. At the very worst, it couldn't be very different from the current state of their relationship.

Decus took hold of the Cruxis Crystal, and was ready to pull it out when Alice's eyes snapped open. His hand fell limp to his side.

"What do you think you're doing to us?" Alice pulled his arm away from her chest and sent cast Turbulence to send him careening backwards.

Decus hit the ground hard. Try as he might, he was unable to stand, succeeding once only to drop to the ground again. With Alice unable to heal the wounds of their last fight, he had to treat them by himself. And a few bandages and gels couldn't mend the cut. However something was worrying him more than his bruises: Had she just said 'us?' Something in her tone seemed to completely exclude him from the statement.

'_Not good. Not good at all,'_ he thought, desperately trying to avoid the sensation of panic creeping up on him.

Alice stood up and took her toy rapier. "You were trying to hurt me weren't you? She had been right this whole time!" Alice said pointing at him with her weapon.

A toy rapier isn't dangerous.

Decus knew for a fact that statement changed on a fundamental level if Alice was holding it. And who was the 'she' to whom she was referring to?!

"All these years, how could I have been so blind?! You're just like the rest of them, you filthy _human!_"

Decus gulped, the way Alice was looking at him had changed. He'd known her to adopt some very disturbing facial expressions when intimidating people she disliked. And the look in her eyes now left the murderous sneer she gave to Marta and that kid in Ginungagap in the dust. That couldn't be good.

"I-I wasn't trying to hurt you, dear. I would _never _do such a thing! I wouldn't even think of it! I _love_ you! You are _everything_ to me! I…" he paused for a second. "I was trying to take the Cruxis Crystal from you. Don't you see that thing is changing you… It-It's _killing_ you!"

The explanation didn't seem to matter to the white-haired half-elf who replied by shooting him mercilessly with a bolt of lighting that came from the tip of her weapon, sending him sprawling headfirst into the wall. He felt a crack, and blacked out in moments.

Alice walked to the body of her companion and pointed at him with her weapon. A lighting bolt at point blank range would kill the swordsman for sure. She charged the whip with electricity ready to shoot a second time.

'_Don't!'_ a part of her screamed inside her head, _'don't do this to him!'_

"Shut _up_!" she hissed, scowling.

Before she could get any further into her internal debate about over sparing Decus or not, she heard a scuffling noise from outside the room.

The half-elf let the spell discharge into a wall, tearing a hole a foot in diameter in the side of the building, and went on to investigate. When she found out where those noises were coming she smiled sadistically. "My, my. How convenient of you to be here," she said in her venomously sweet voice.

The priest had barely begun to get up from his state of shock, and now all he could do was whimper pathetically. He had never been so scared in his life. He never thought that he'd ever find himself at the mercy of none other than Alice _the sadist_.

"Well, well, well, isn't this your lucky day? Today you get to be my practice target. Aren't you happy? Not everyone gets to have such an honor."

He didn't even have time to beg for mercy. There was a split second between the moment that he saw a runic circle in the air pointing at his direction, and the moment that he felt his body being torn apart from a violent storm of tiny razor-sharp ice shards.

Alice took her time casting the spell to enjoy the agonized screams of the priest a little more. She loved this moment, the moment when the person knew they were doomed; their life amounting to nothing. The moment they realized they couldn't do anything about it but scream with regret, misery and pure brilliant pain.

Alice let her shards grow to the size of large stakes, bursting right through the pastor's body, reducing it to a mess that could never in a million years be identified as human. The ice stakes continued in their trajectory and shattered the wooden wall, destroying a good half of the building in the process of killing the man. She left, humming an ominously cheery tune. The grass beneath her feet froze and died as she walked over it.

There was no sign of a priest having been there anymore. Nothing but shredded cloth, bits and pieces of bloody flesh and bone shards.

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_**Author's notes:**_ **I hope you enjoyed it and don't forget to press the review button and leave a comment, they really make my day. See you all in the next chapter.**


	25. The beauty and the beast

**_Author's notes:_ Well, here is the ch. 25, late again. This is being a busy year for me and I can't spend as many time as I would like writing but I will keep trying to update as fast as I can.**

**_Anonymous reviews: _Sturm and Drang:… Wait! You finally have your own account! Old habits… No anonymous reviews this time I guess.**

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**EPISODE 2: THE JOURNEY OF DEGENERATION**

**Chapter 25: The Beauty and the Beast**

**Renegade's base.**

"What is that thing?!" Sheena exclaimed, taking a few steps backwards at the sight of the creature approaching to them.

"It looks like some kind of exbeula." Raine answered,unsure. She indeed looked like one but if this was one of Nickolay's creations it could be anything.

The creature was eight feet tall with a humanoid complexion, its skin dark green with a single red eye in the middle of its head. Its face was covered by a metallic mask, oronasal mask strapped over its mouth and nose, straps going around its head. Despite the distance that separated them from the creature the group could hear its suffocated and extenuating breath. Its arms had been substituted by two robotic prosthesis, its left hand by a three fingered claw and its right by some sort of canon.

Suddenly the speakers in the room turned on with a deafening screech.

"Sorry about that, sorry about that, I hate when that happens, too. Is this working? One, two, three, testing, testing…" A familiar voice spoke. "Good…" The scientist cleared up his voice. "I see that you have finally found my newest creation:" Nickolay waited a few seconds to increase the drama. "_Beauty_!"

"How could you do this! For a moment I thought you have changed but I see you're still the same bastard obsessed with the experiments." Raine shouted bitterly.

"Your words hurt my feelings, my dear Raine." The scientist replied in a hurtful voice. "I tried to help that woman. She was mortally wounded in the attack that Decus and Alice did in Triet a few days ago to blackmail the chosen. I used an exphere to accelerate the regeneration process but her body didn't respond well to the treatment and her cells began to multiply too fast and she ended up becoming one of those things." Nickolay explained. "You must understand me, it would have been a waste to not take advantage of the situation."

"Don't try to justify yourself!" Raine screamed madly. "You knew the risks perfectly and you knew it would happen."

"I'm so disappointed to see you think that way! I thought that you of all the people would understand me, Raine." The mad scientist replied in a sad voice. "The only way to progress is through experimentation. Her body served to a greater purpose, the progress of the—"

"Hell Pyre!"

Zelos threw a ball of fire that made the speakers explode.

"Thank you." The professor said to the red-haired swordsman.

"No problem. I was getting tired of his voice."

"Could we leave the chit-chat for latter, that thing is coming to us." Sheena warned as she saw the monster charging to them.

Presea put herself in the middle of its path and tried to strike the creature. It dodged, swinging it's robotic arm to send her flying backwards.

Zelos tried to jump on the creature's back but mid jump the creature turned and aimed at him with its arm-canon. The turbines at the sides of the canon began to vibrate very fast, capturing the mana in the air and concentrating it inside the canon, ready to release on the swordsman.

"Damn!" There was no way Zelos could dodge that shoot in the middle of the air. How could that thing be so fast? It was almost as if the exbeula had predicted his attack. The chosen ducked behind his shield ready to take the blow when Regal suddenly appeared in front of him and kicked the arm just in time, diverting the shoot. The beam collided against the metallic wall, opening a hole.

Zelos gulped. If that had hit him the shield would have been useless.

As soon as Regal landed on the floor the exbeula lashed out to strike at him with its arm before he could defend himself but Raine reacted fast and raised a wall of light to absorb the hit. However the hit was so strong that it was able to shatter the wall of light and strike the blue-haired man, sending him flying backwards and hitting the floor hard.

The man hold his chest and began to cough. If it hadn't been for the wall of light his ribs would have been broken like chopsticks.

"Are you ok?" Presea asked as she helped the president of the Lezareno company stand up.

"Yeah…" He coughed. His whole body felt as if it had been smashed by a ram. "I wouldn't have been so lucky if it hadn't been for Raine. Thank you!"

"You will have time to thank me latter!" She replied without losing sight of the monster for a single second.

"That shoot…" Sheena murmured. "Could it be he has armed this exbeula with a smaller version of the mana canon?"

Judging by the speed of the creature and the average mobility of an exbeula it was clear that Nickolay had enhanced the creature, but had he really been able to create a portable version of a mana canon?

"Sheena be careful! It is coming to you!" Zelos warned.

The monster jumped and tried to smash Sheena under its metallic arms but the ninja evaded the hit with a somersault. It began to attack relentlessly but despite the speed of the beast Sheena's hard training during the last two years was showing the results. The ninja was able to dodge all its attacks with scary ease, jumping and moving around the beast like an annoying fly.

The monster shouted enraged. Its body became engulfed by sparks of electricity that released into a wave of energy around itself, striking the ninja and sending her to the floor, benumbing all her muscles.

Sheena tried to stand up but it was useless; her body was completely paralyzed by the attack. All she could do was watch horrified as the beast moved towards her impassively ready to finish her. The monster raised its arm ready to stab her with its sharp metallic claws.

Luckily for her Presea put herself between the blow and stopped the claw with her axe, straining to hold it. The monster began to charge its body with energy, ready to release another shock wave, when a lighting blade fell on top of it, impaling it from all sides and disrupting the attack.

"Not so fast." Genis taunted. Surprisingly for the half-elf, the beast recovered fast from the attack and began to attack the pink haired girl. While Presea fought with the beast, Genis and Raine's spells covering her, Zelos and Regal took Sheena's paralyzed body away from the creature.

"Is she ok?" Regal asked.

"I don't know, can you talk?" Zelos asked to Sheena.

The black-haired woman tried to reply but the shock wave had slept her tongue making her issue an incomprehensible moan.

"It looks like she can't talk." The ex-chosen deduced. "OK Sheena, moan once to say _Yes_ and moan twice to say _No_. Did you understand me."

Sheena rolled her eyes but it looked like she had no other choice but to follow his instructions and moaned once.

"Fine. Would you let me to cuddle my head against those two beautiful boobs of yours?" Zelos asked with a naughty grin.

Sheena moaned twice.

"Double yes awesome!"

"_You damn pervert bastard, I will kick you in the crotch if you put your face close to my breast!" _Was what the ninja tried to say but only a furious grunt left her mouth, enough for Zelos to understand the message.

"Yeah, I think she is fine." Zelos concluded, looking to Regal. "I'm not the best healer of the world but I think can take care of her wounds without Raine. You can go to help the others."

Regal nodded and let Zelos take care of Sheena's wounds.

"You know…" Zelos said casually as he put his hands over her chest and casted a healing spell. "This situation would be sexy if it wasn't because that monster's trying to kill us."

The raven-haired ninja looked at him with a murderous look and grunted. "_You are so dead after this."_

"How is she?" Raine asked Regal as she lifted a magic shield in front of Presea to stop a blow of the monster.

"She will be fine." Regal replied.

"Could you stop babbling and come to help?!" Presea grunted struggling against the beast as she tried to push away its metallic claw that was just a few inches of scratching her face.

Regal ran to join Presea and pushed away the monster's arm with a roundhouse kick. The beast then aimed at Regal with the canon but Presea diverted the shot with a strong blow of her axe. Regal jumped and kicked the monster's metallic mask, disorienting the creature long enough for Presea to finally land a hack on the side of the beast.

The monster screamed in agony, putting its hand over the wound. Presea was about to land a second hit when she felt Regal embracing her and jumping away from the exbeula. Presea was about to ask what he was doing when she saw the monster release another shock wave. If it hadn't been for Regal she would have been electrocuted just like Sheena.

"Thank you… I forgot about it for a moment."

Regal just nodded.

"_Now is my chance."_ Genis thought.

The monster immobile was groaning in pain, it's hand over his side and with his companions at a safe distance, he wouldn't get a better chance to use a powerful spell.

_"From the land of the living, I call upon thee in the land of the dead to unleash thy fury of thunder, Indignation!" _

The exbeula roared, looking at Genis when hundreds of lighting struck directly over it.

"Did we got it?" Genis asked.

The exbeula's smoking and burned body was lying over the floor. Regal went closer to the creature and inspected it.

"Yeah! I think we did it!" Regal confirmed.

"Yeah!" Genis exclaimed closing his fist.

Regal and Presea began to walk towards his companions when suddenly a big shadow covered them. Regal and Presea stood stunned when they heard the metallic asthmatic breath of the beast behind them.

"Regal! Presea!" Genish screamed but it was already too late.

Regal took Presea and threw her away from the beast just in time. Everything seemed to go in slow motion for the girl who saw how the beast struck Regal just after he threw her away. The blow broke various bones and threw the blue haired man against the wall, body falling limp on the ground.

Presea tightened her grip on the axe and as soon as her feet touched the floor she charged against the beast with a furious scream. The wounded monster shoot at Presea but the enraged girl avoided the shoot and jumped over the monster. Raine cast the spell _Sharp_ on her axe and she struck the monster on the head with all her might. The blow barely managed to scratch the metallic helm.

The exbeula struck Presea with the canon sending her flying away despite having blocking it with her weapon.

"Presea!" Raine shouted.

"I'm fine!" She replied between coughs, drying the blood from her mouth as she hastily stood up, using her axe as a cane. "Go check on Regal."

Raine nodded and ran towards Regal to treat his wounds.

"Zelos! Come, I will need your help!" Raine shouted, she would need the help of another person who knew healing artes if she wanted to save Regal.

"Will you be ok?" Zelos asked to Sheena.

The ninja nodded. "Go!"

Zelos ran with Raine to aid her with Regal.

Sheena tried to stand up to aid in the fight but her muscles still failed her and she fell to the floor. The ninja punched the ground furiously at her impotence; if only she had been more careful this wouldn't have happened. Now all she could do was watch how Genis and Presea do their best to stop the monster. It was just like when she summoned Volt from the first time and she couldn't do anything to stop his rage.

Meanwhile, Genis had been watching the scene completely stunned. The monster seemed indestructible. The teen froze when he saw the wounds of the beast began to heal quickly. How? What was that thing?

Suddenly a Nickolay's laugh began to echo all over the room.

"Did you really think that you could defeat years of experimentation with exbeulas like that? Hahahaha! I have perfected the exbeulization!" Nickolay bragged, shouting from a floating robot equipped with a camera and a pair of speakers. "This exbeula can use the excess of mana from the exbeulization process to regenerate its own wounds. Bow before the power of progress!"

However the situation didn't seem to set back the pink haired girl who took away her pony tails and charged against the beast to fight it.

Genis watched the fight but everything seemed useless. The exbeula seemed to have been fully recovered and had recovered its agility. If the situation wasn't bad enough Sheena, Regal were out of combat and his sister and Zelos couldn't help them with the fight. How could only the two of them defeat that creature?

Genis began to panic. _"What are we going to do? What are we going to do?"_

"What's wrong?" Nickolay asked mockingly. "Have you finally realized my genius? Hahahaha! But don't worry I promise it won't kill you. Your bodies are too precious to be wasted. And you Raine, don't worry, I will forgive you and your brother if you—"

"I would rather cut myself and swim naked in the sewerage of Meltokio slums and die by a slow and painful infection than accept whatever proposition you have in mind." The professor replied bitterly.

Zelos chuckled at the comment though a loud sound echoed through the speakers as if Nickolay had hit something. It seemed like he didn't find her comment funny at all.

"OK! If that's what you want, so be it! You will die here with the rest of them!" He shouted angrily.

Meanwhile, Genis had been trying to think of a way to defeat the creature but everything seemed useless and despair begun to take control of his thoughts. _"It can regenerate any wound and the armor it is way too heavy! There is nothing we can do, we are going to die here, we are—"_

"Genis!" Presea shouted, taking the attention of the nervous teen. "Focus! We can do it. I trust you."

Presea's words were like a slap that dragged him back to the reality. Genis closed his eyes and began to think.

"_The exbeula can regenerate any non lethal wound. The mithril armor is protecting the head and the chest covering the vital organs. The mithril is way too heavy for Presea to cut through it, and- Wait! That's it!"_

"Presea! I know how we can defeat it!" Genis shouted. "When I use my spell strike the top of his head with all your force!"

"But the armor is too heavy." Presea protested.

"Trust me! This time it will work."

Presea was about to protest again but she saw the determination in his eyes that stopped her short. Determination she hadn't seen since they fought Mithos two years ago; a gaze that told her she could trust him.

"OK."

Genis began to cast _"gravity well"_ to stop the exbeula in it's place.

Nickolay began to laugh through the speakers. "That's the best thing you can come up with? Even if you stop it you won't be able to wound it. Your efforts are useless!"

"Presea, attack now!" Genis commanded.

The pink-haired girl nodded and charged ready to jump on the beast to hit just where Genis had told her to.

"Who said that I want to stop it?" Genis asked in a calm voice.

"Uh?"

"You are a scientist. Basic physics, tell me: What is the force?"

"Mass per acceleration." He answered simply. "Everyone knows that. Why do you—" It took him a moment to connect the dots. "No! Damn it!"

Presea jumped.

"Gravity well!" Genis shouted.

The exbeula was about to catch Presea's hair when the spell activated, pulling her down in a fraction of second.

For a moment the room was silent. Even Nickolay had finally shut his loud mouth. The exbeula was immobile in front of the girl in the catching motion.

Presea gave the back to the exbeula and walked away. The exbeula seemed to take a step forward and Nickolay chuckled, but much to his dismay it split in two.

"Gaaaaaahhh! HOW DARE YOU! DAMN YOU!" From the speakers it could be heard how Nickolay was hitting and breaking everything around him "SHIT! SHIT! SHI—!" until he accidentally struck the microphone cutting the communication with a chirp.

Presea serious face changed into a smile when she looked at Genis. "I knew you could do it Genis!"

Genis became red like a tomato. "Ye-yeah, thank you." He stuttered. He had to admit that even if she was covered with green blood she looked cute with the hair loose.

* * *

**Secret lab.**

"That little brat!" Nickolay shouted, breathing furiously. "How dare he!"

"Problem?" Lloyd asked from behind. It took him a while but he had finally found where he was hiding.

"How did you find me?"

"It was hard not do it with those screams." Lloyd said, unsheathing his swords. "You have nowhere to hide. Now tell me; where is Colette?"

Nickolay pulled up his messed hair and grunted. He might have lost a battle but he wasn't going to lose the war.

(…)

**Rest house**

On their way to find Decus and Alice and stop them of breaking the water seal, causing seal keeping the hell gate closed to break, Marta, Emil and Tenebrae had found a half rest house half-ruined and judging by its state it was recently.

They ran to check if someone was wounded and find out what happened. The first thing they noticed was that whatever had happened they had arrived too late to stop. The rest house had a hole so big that the interior of the first floor could be perfectly seen from the outside and grass outside was covered with a thin layer of ice. In the middle of the garden there was a big metallic coffin covered with blood, as well, no one could tell if they belonged to a human or not.

Emil contained his gag reflex after thinking the worst. Marta approached her companion and put a hand on his back, caressing it.

"Are you OK Emil?" She asked, concerned.

"I- I will be fine." Emil sat on the grass and closed his eyes, rubbing his forehead. "Just give me a minute."

"OK. If you need anything tell me."

Meanwhile Tenebrae had been inspecting the metallic coffin, it didn't take him long to recognize the object and the owner.

"Lady Marta! I have good news!"

Marta gave a last gaze to Emil who waved his hand telling her that she could go to whatever Tenebrae had found.

"I think we are closer to our objective. Look." The centurion of darkness said, pointing the coffin.

Marta gasped, it was nothing more and nothing less than Decus' Iron Maiden. If it was there it meant that Decus was there too, and if he was there it meant that Alice had to be close.

The girl tightened her fist and gulped at the thought of having to face Alice again. A mixture of hate, fear and pity crossed her body making her shiver when she remembered their last fight in the Ginnungagap.

"We should enter in the rest house, we might find more clues inside." Tenebrae pointed out as he entered in the rest house without waiting for Marta's or Emil's reply. The centurion was clearly focused on the mission that Ratatosk had commanded him.

"Let's go inside Marta." Emil said to her companion looking away from the pile of bloody flesh and cracked bones.

Marta, Emil and Tenebrae began to inspect the first floor, or what remained of it. All the furniture was shattered and the floor was covered with broken glasses and porcelain that cracked under their steps.

"Is theresomeone in here!?" Marta shouted. "Anyone!?"

Tenebrae put the hand-shaped tip of his tail over Marta's mouth to silence her.

"Shhhhh, I think I heard something."

They stood in silence and after a few seconds they began to hear someone sobbing.

"It soundslike it comes from the second floor."

The trio went upstairs to see who was crying when they recognized the smell of certain intoxicating cologne, only one person who would wear that cologne in his sound mind. Their suspicions were confirmed when they took a sneak peek in the room and Decus was sitting on the floor with his head between his kneels crying.

"I don't think he notices us." Marta whispered. "Why is he crying?"

Tenebrae ignored Marta and began to look around the room. "Where is Alice? I don't see her. We should interrogate him."

Emil rubbed his shoulder, uncomfortable at the Centurion's comment. Even after all the crimes that Decus had committed he was crying and the idea of interrogating him now didn't feel right. "I don't know…He is crying…I don't feel like interrogating someone who is crying."

"We are on a mission, if we fail this world is doomed. We can't stop doing what we must because of how we feel!" Tenebrae yelled, justifiably irritated.

"I don't know…The last time we spoke with him in Hima before going to the Ginnungagap he was quite reasonable." He tried to justify. "I think that we can get more information with a friendly approach than with an interrogation."

"But—"

"Besides, we are talking about Decus, he would rather die than betray Alice." Marta complimented Emil. "If we interrogate him and make him feel like he was betraying Alice if he said anything we wouldn't get any information."

Tenebrae stood silent a few seconds thinking on what they said.

"I see, so you want to make a _'friendly approach'_ to trick him and get the information." Tenebrae deduced, flexing his tail when he quoted '_friendly approach'_. "That's quite smart Marta. I don't know…It might work."

Both Marta and Emil rolled their eyes, it looked like that would be the best they would get from him but at that moment it was enough.

"OK, let's—"

Emil was abruptly cut off when he saw Decu's sword crossing the wooden wall, missing his head by an inch.

Decus pulled the door from its frame and threw it away, taking Emil by the neck of his shirt and throwing him out the window.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" Decus screamed, enraged and still tear stricken.

"Emil!" Marta squealed.

Tenebrae teleported to where Emil was about to fall and took him by the leg, catching him just before his face to hit the ground.

"Yeah, he looks quite reasonable. Still want to continue with your _friendly approach_ plan?" The Centurion of darkness asked with a sly undertone as he put Emil down.

Emil rolled his eyes.

Decus jumped through the broken window to the garden, sword in hand while Marta run down the stairs to go join Emil.

"This is all your fault! Everything was going fine until you and your damn friends interfered!" Decus shouted, his whole body surrounded by a glowing purple aura that blurred on the air. "Why did you have to interfere? Don't we deserve to be happy!?"

Marta ran to Emil and helped him stand, which only enraged Decus more. It wasn't fair, why couldn't he have that? Why couldn't he and Alice be like that? It wasn't fair.

"Decus what are you talking about?"

"Alice and I could be living happily now but she has abandoned me!" He shouted, drying his tears. "I should have never listened to Colette, I should have ignored her!" _Those two were living happily together while he had been abandoned like trash by his beloved. Why him! Why couldn't he have that! _"I should have never opposed to her wishes..." He whispered, breaking into tears. "I-I betrayed her trust and now she hates me."

The blue haired man stood in silence, crying and lost in his thoughts. Marta was about to say something to comfort him when he suddenly broke into laughter.

"But I will redeem myself…" There was no way to tell if he was talking to them or to himself. "I will become the kind of man she needs; a slave! And she will love me back." Emil and Marta began to freak out. "To prove my everlasting love to her I will take your heads to her! With that will prove my loyalty to her and then things will be like they were before." He chuckled, tears rolling down his cheeks.

Marta and Emil were completely freaked out by his reaction.

"It looks like he finally snapped." Tenebrae said.

"Look Decus, we want to help you!" Marta said in a calming voice, trying to calm him.

"LIES!" The purple aura suddenly rose when he shouted and all the grass around Decus began to wither and die. "You are all liars! You want to manipulate me to betray her like Colette did! But I won't! I will fulfill her wishes and she will accept me back at her side. With your deaths I will gain back her trust and we will be together again. Everything will be as it used to be before the Vanguard!"

"Decus please, we don't want to fight!" The brunette girl pledged.

"Your blood will be the water that will make our relationship blossom again!" Decus screamed with a trembling smile and tears rolling down his cheeks.

Emil unsheathed his sword, there was no reason to keep talking to him. It was clear that he had lost it.

"This is for you Alice!" Decus screamed with a maniac smile and the gaze of a psychopath. However his scream wasn't filled with hatred but with agony and pain.

Decus pointed at them with his sword and lowered his head, making the shadow of his fringe obscure his gaze. Emil, Marta and Tenebrae prepared for the upcoming fight but Decus didn't make a single move, he just stood in the same position aiming at them with his sword. Emil gulped and tightened the grip of his sword. Suddenly Decus sword slid through his hand, sticking on the ground and Decus fell to the ground on one knee.

Emil gave a suspicious gaze to Marta as if he was asking: _"What just happened?"_

She shrugged.

The pair walked carefully to the purple haired man who stood knelt with the sword at his side. They had to be careful, as far as they knew he could be faking something to take them with their guard down. It was something more typical of Alice but they weren't going to take that risk.

Emil was the first one to talk from a safe distance. "Decus…?" He asked in low voice but he got no answer. "Hey, Decus…" Still nothing.

The boy looked back to Marta and shrugged. The girl frowned and looked at him with threatening gaze that said: _"Be a man."_

Emil gulped and shook Decus' shoulder. "Decus…"

Decus' body felt limp on the grass. Emil jumped backwards, scared as soon as he saw Decus body fall. Marta sighed. There was her brave blue prince. Emil blushed, ashamed of his reaction.

"It looks like he fainted." Tenebrae pointed out.

Marta knelt aside Decus' body and put aside his fringe. "Alice had abandoned him and he was going through a lot of stress. More than what he could take."

"At least we know we are in the right direction."

The Centurion looked to the pair and then to the man who was now lying on the ground. "What are you going to do with him?"

Emil scratched his hair and puffed. "We can't leave him here. I know I'm going to regret this but I think we should take him with us until we find out what's going on. Besides, there are still a few personal things I wanted to ask him."

"But to be safe let's put him in handcuffs." Marta said handcuffing Decus with a pair of golden handcuffs.

"Where did you get those?" Emil asked, shoked.

"They were in his Iron-maiden, aside a gag and a picture of Alice." She answered normally. At this point she knew Decus enough to not be surprised about finding something like that. "Why?"

Emil blinked and shook his head. "Nothing, nothing…"

"Well, and how are we going to carry this guy?" Tenebrae asked.

"I thought that you could do it with no problem." The blonde answered.

"What!? There is no way I can lift such a heavy guy, he must weigh at least one hundred seventy-one pounds! There is no way I can lift that."

"I saw you lift Alice's golem pet in Meltokio when it was about to explode." Marta pointed in a serious voice with her arms crossed.

"Well- I- hm- look it- but- it wasn't—" Tenebrae babbled, trying to find an excuse. "Fine… I will do it." He agreed, defeated by the sixteen years old argument. "This wasn't what I signed for…" He complained as he put Decus body on his back.

* * *

**_Author's notes:_ I hope you liked it. In the next chapter: Lloyd and Nickolay will have more than words and Alice keeps the degeneration journey by herself.**

**Don't forget to tell me your opinions in the reviews and see you next time! Who will write the review number 100?**


	26. The gift of Madness

**_Author's notes:_**** Almost three months to update a chapter. I know it has been a long time but I have been on vacations (like a lot of you I guess) and I couldn't work in the fic. To make it worse my beta-reader has been busy and unable to fix the chapter. However I had some help from _"Draconic"_ and while it took him more than it should the results are quite good (_We argued a little and decided that the flashback should be changed. So he ended basicalle remaking the 60% of the flashback under my supervision_).**

_**Anonymous reviews:**_** None.**

**And now, without more delay, the chapter! Enjoy!**

* * *

EPISODE 2: THE JOURNEY OF DEGENERATION

Chapter 26: The Gift of Madness

* * *

_**Hima orphanage ten years ago**_

_"Murderer!"_

_"Desian lover!"_

_"Kill him!"_

_The doors of the orphanage opened and out walked the director with his sons, the mayor right behind them, dragging Decus out of the building by his collar._

_"It wasn't me! I didn't do it!" The purple haired boy shouted between tears as he tried to shake off his captors. "You have to believe me!"_

_One of the orphanage owner's sons punched him in the jaw, shutting him up immediately._

_"No one's going to trust the friend of a Desian!"_

_The crowd cheered excitedly at the show of violence. Encouraged by his audience, the kid kicked in the stomach making Decus bow in pain._

_"She's not a Desian…She's a half-elf…there's a big difference," Decus groaned nauseously. "And it wasn't me! You have to…to trust me! He…and his brothers did it!" He shouted desperately, pointing at the director's sons. He choked and coughed up blood, but it apparently didn't warrant sympathy._

_The director grabbed Decus and pushed him against the orphanage walls with all his might._

_"How-dare-you-to-say-that-about-my-sons!" Each word was punctuated with a slap in the face before tossing him to the ground, still roaring at the top of his lungs, "We, who took you in! We, who fed and clothed you! You'd be dead if it wasn't for us! How dare you slander me and my family!?"_

_Decus tried to push himself back to his knees, but he could barely manage that. He turned to look the adventuring party. Opening his mouth to speak, he found that all he could do was cough and choke on a mixture of spit and blood. He groaned. Apparently this violently offended one of the director's sons, as he kicked him hard in the mouth, making him choke on his own cough, but otherwise silencing him. He grabbed his throat, forcing his body to tilt toward the wall so that he wouldn't fall over sideways._

_A number of people in the crowd cheered at the brutal spectacle of the so-called justice. He managed to find his voice before anyone else started attacking him._

_"It wasn't their fault…it was an accident…But I didn't do it."_

_The adventuring party looked at him skeptically._

_"We were attacked and robbed. How was that an accident?" one of them asked._

_"They didn't mean to kill him…" this was a lie, he knew. The director was a bad person through and through. So were his kids. It was their intention to kill all of them to keep them quiet. When their plan had failed, they just needed a scapegoat, and who better than an orphan with no friends other than a worthless half-elf. Nevertheless, he continued trying to make them look as innocent as possible –or at least less guilty- to get their favor._

_"The orphanage… it's in danger of going under. They couldn't keep it open with the money they had, and they…they really needed the money. It was for us… They would never do anything…like this normally."_

_"Is this true?" one of the adventurers asked, probably the leader, judging solely by his appearance. "I mean, we can't let you off the hook if that's the case, but we can at least let you off easier. If you needed the money you should have just asked."_

_"Who are you going to believe?" the director demanded furiously, spittle flying from his mouth, "Us, or this…this… Desian-lover?"_

_Decus groaned inaudibly. He should have figured that the director would do everything in his power to get him killed. The adventurers had hesitated, and that was all the answer the director and his sons needed. They knocked Decus over onto his back and began beating him to a pulp._

_Meanwhile, an eight-year-old Alice stood orphanage cellar, confronted by a familiar apparition, a massive shadow with three empty red eyes. This specter had come to her before, offering gifts in exchange for a simple favor. She never dared accept before, but today._

_"I ask you again, young half-elf, as I have three times before," it began in a deep, hollow voice, "Will you find the Book of Niflheim in exchange for the power to live your life as you see fit?"_

_"No! I already told you, I don't help monsters! Monsters killed my mom and dad!" Alice whimpered._

_"So you've said. I needn't hear it again. But I have a question for you: If your mother and father fell to monsters, wouldn't your refusal to accept my offer be a setup for a repeat of the tragedy that befell your parents? Or perhaps, you should ask yourself if the monsters that killed them are even the proper targets of your hatred?"_

_"Shut up!" Alice cried, "Why shouldn't I hate the things that killed my family?"_

_The shadow laughed, a deep sound distorted by the basement walls._

_"I never said you shouldn't hate them. Hate is good, hate helps us go on, hate makes us powerful. No…" it answered, "perhaps I misspoke. I simply wondered whether the creatures that killed your parents were the only ones to blame for their deaths."_

_Alice felt a sense of dread begin to grow in the pit of her stomach, "W-What do you mean?"_

_"Think for a moment: Why were they out in the dangerous wilderness in the first place without any means of defending themselves?"_

_Alice didn't know why she answered, but she couldn't say that the sudden sense of betrayal, even if it wasn't very strong hadn't shaken her a little, "They were…on a pilgrimage for the Church of Martel…"_

_"Ah, the Church. Those preachers of false a god and hypocrisy," the shadow began, a trace of malignant amusement present in its voice, "And now I ask you, if they are so good why did they force your parents on a pilgrimage? What sin had they committed? Begin half-elves?"_

_Alice certainly didn't trust the creature, who would trust a demon? But she couldn't deny that there was truth in its words._

_"Oh," the shadow noted, as though it had just noticed something happening. "It seems to be getting rather close to the line. That nasty director and his vile little boys are about to beat the last vestiges of life from that boy you seem to be so fond of. Decus, was it?"_

_"What!?" Alice shrieked. No._

_They couldn't kill Decus. They just…couldn't…_

_It didn't even make sense. The thought was so absurd that she almost laughed…but what if…?_

_"Y-You're lying," she said at last._

_"Am I? Perhaps you could go outside and see for yourself?"_

_The apparition vanished without another word and Alice bolted up the stairs, and ran outside. There he was, bruised and lying in a small pool of his own blood, which was trickling slowly out of a number of cuts and gashes all over his body. And the whole town was watching, some cheering while others turned away in disgust, either of what they perceived as Decus' crime or the show of violence. The party of adventurers just stood by and watched._

_Upon hearing a sharp crack as one of Decus' ribs broke, Alice couldn't take it anymore._

_Decus held back a scream, he didn't want Alice to have to hear him die even if she wouldn't see it._

_"Leave him alone!"_

_He turned his head in horror to see the girl in question standing just outside the orphanage doors. Whispers erupted throughout the crowd. Neither he, nor Alice was surprised though._

_"I don't know why we allow that girl to live in this town!" he heard a middle-aged woman exclaim over some of the other mutterings. "Those monsters killed my husband and took my son to their human ranch. Why do we bother taking care of one of them?" Her voice was filled with hatred. Alice was an outcast from everyone else in Hima. Nobody wanted anything to do with a half-elf. What sane person would? Parents would tell their children to stay away from her. When she needed something, people would often pretend not to hear her, and when they finally acknowledged her they'd do so hesitantly, even fearfully. People would even avoid looking at her when she was in the room, as though they were worried about being guilty by that most trivial association. She wasn't a Desian, but to everyone in the village, 'half-elf' and 'Desian' were synonymous._

_She tried to run over to the victimized boy, but the mayor grabbed her. Alice bit his hand making him yelp, but before she could try to go any further, he had grabbed her by her hair and yanked her back, eliciting a pained squeal._

_"Why you little–!" the mayor grunted, looking at his hand noticing some blood on his hand where she had bitten him. He smacked her and she lost her balance, landing on her side._

_"After all we've done for you, you'd still do this to me? To defend him of all people? A thief and a murderer?"_

_"He's not a thief or a murderer! He's my friend!" she cried, "He's never done anything wrong!"_

_"Except making friends with you, perhaps?" came a deep voice, "Look where his kindness has gotten him?" She looked around wildly for the three-eyed shadow, and saw it fading into view between her and the mayor. Strangely, nobody else seemed to notice it, or even hear its voice, "All this hatred and suspicion, just because he befriended a half-elf."_

_Tears began to well up in her eyes. The spectators who had cheered while Decus was being trampled began giggling. They must have been hoping for some sort of blood sport, and they were getting what they wanted. Most of the other people in the crowd looked away or whispered to each other though._

_"Fine, then," the mayor announced, "I'll take no responsibility for what happens to you from now on. But if you're going to defend a murderer, I'm afraid I have no choice other than to say that you must share in his guilt."_

_Once again, the spectators cheered viciously._

_"Yeah!"_

_"Kill that half-elf twerp!"_

_"Death to the Desians!"_

_Alice gulped, her eyes widening in terror. "W-what?!"_

_"You've heard the town!" He lifted her off the ground by her hair, and held her up before the crowd. "By coming to the defense of this killer, you've betrayed what little trust we had in you. Once we make him pay for his crime, it will be your turn."_

_"Another hypocrite," the shadow hissed in Alice's ear, "If he really didn't want to take responsibility for you, he would banish you and leave you to fend for yourself. He obviously just wants to kill a half-elf. Clever of him. All the satisfaction of killing an enemy, and none of the guilt over murdering a helpless child."_

_"Just go away!" she whimpered desperately._

_"All you need to do is agree to find the book for me, and I can save you and your friend."_

_Meanwhile, the sport spectators were still roaring in agreement with the mayor's decision, though for the first time, some people in the crowd began voicing their differing opinions._

_"Are you sure about this?" a young man asked._

_"Even if she is a half-elf, she's just a little girl! Isn't execution a little harsh?" a woman spoke out._

_"Oh, shut up lady!" spat one of the orphanage director's sons, suddenly grinning as an idea came to him. "Unless of course, you were also in on it." If he could get a confession out of her, he might even be able to loot her empty house. Hopefully she wasn't married._

_The woman just stepped back into the crowd however._

_"Yeah, thought so," the boy said, almost sounding disappointed._

_When nothing happened after that, the director picked Decus back up by the collar and tossed him face first at the spectators, all of whom pushed their way to the front of the crowd, excited to get their punches or kicks in. The director's boys also joined in._

_"Stop! Please! Stop it!" Alice screamed desperately, "You're going to kill him!" her cries should have broken the hearts of most people in the crowd, and some people just ran back to their homes, no longer wanting to have anything to do with the awful spectacle, but some of the people still attacking the now unconscious Decus looked up._

_"That's the plan, you little shit!" one of the directors sons grinned in a gross facsimile of kindness. The malice in his voice was more palpable that the shadow's. The boy approached her with three of the other brutes._

_"What are you going to do? Why don't you pray to the false goddess like you have done all this years in the orphanage? Like you did when your parents were being devoured by monsters?" the shadow demanded, its voice rising steadily until it was booming in her ears, "Accept my offer, or your life is forfeit as is your friend's. Do you want his blood on your hands? Do you want to die just like your parents did!? Helpless!? These things calling themselves people are even baser creatures than whatever predatory wildlife killed your parents! Humans are the true monsters of this world!"_

_Alice hesitated for a moment, but in the end, there really was only one possible choice._

_"Fine…I accept…" she sobbed in resignation._

_"Well, that's no fun…" one of the one of the director's sons sneered, "where's the sport in killing a half-elf that admits that they're not worth the clothes on her back?"_

_"She was not speaking to you, worm," the shadow boomed, suddenly audible to the rest of the mob._

_"What was that!?" demanded the director, grabbing Alice by the front of her shirt. "What have you done you little witch?!"_

_Suddenly, an eerie azure flame flickered to life behind the young half-elf, spreading a strange static flame across the ground in a circle. As soon as it was complete, the flames spread inward, the strange motionless flames drawing intricate glyphs in the ground._

_Alice looked at the magic circle in astonishment. She looked around scared and saw the same circles being drawn all over the town. The people still pummeling Decus noticed the sudden commotion, looking around in confusion._

_Alice found herself the target of the antagonistic mob's collectively terrified gaze. They were all staring on the half-elf girl who was now surrounded by a dark aura._

_"Are you the one doing this?" The mayor demanded, his voice trembling. His attempt to appear in control was undermined by that tremor. It was easy to tell that he was just as unnerved as everyone else still outside. Even the adventurers had taken shelter inside the orphanage, sensing something was wrong._

_Alice didn't respond. She seemed to be in some kind of trance._

_"S-stop it," he stammered, trying in vain to sound threatening, "I-I m-m-mean it! S-Stop what-whatever this is y-you're doing!" He grabbed Alice by her shoulders and shook her vigorously, but if she had even responded at all, none of the rioters could tell. The inky black aura emanating from her continuing to spread, and more occult blue circles appearing in the vicinity._

_"I said stop it!" he screamed._

_Finally, the mayor lost his nerve, and began running back to his house._

_Still unphased, or maybe assuming that it was all some sort of trick, the orphanage director grabbed Alice and raised his fist to punch her when a pillar of blue flames erupted from the central runic circle._

_The circle behind Alice._

_When the flames receded, Alice came to. And for the first time, she saw the creature that had cast its shadow before her three times before. There, surrounded by the now flickering azure flames stood a gigantic knight encased completely in a black suit of armor decorated with grizzly skull motifs. It was seven feet tall at the very least._

_On its left arm, it carried a large shield with a silver skull in the center, and in its right, it held a massive broadsword almost as long as the knight was tall._

_But the most frightening detail was that there was nothing inside the armor but those unearthly blue flames._

_The knight walked towards Alice steadily. The director released her, and trembling in fear, began to back away. The half-elven girl just stood there, not phased by the armor's presence in the least._

_"Wh-wh-who are you? W-What d-do you want?" one of the few remaining people in the crowd asked. Not even bothering to hide his terror._

_"I want," the armor rumbled, "compensation for your transgressions." Alice noticed that its voice was slightly different than it sounded when it was a shadow. While its voice itself was unchanged, it had taken on a metallic and hollow sound, reflecting the emptiness inside its armor._

_"What do you mean, p-payment?" one of the boys stammered. He stood bravely behind his father and brothers, so that if the lumbering knight swung its sword it would only kill his family and miss him. By a few inches at least._

_The nightmarish infernal knight didn't reply. He just walked forward, getting steadily closer to the orphanage director. The broadsword suddenly ignited with the same azure flames burning inside its armor._

_It raised its sword "No! Please no!" the director shrieked in sheer horror, his voice going hoarse as his mouth dried up. "Don't kill me! Please! Please!" he fell to his knees and wept._

_The living armor hesitated._

_"Very well," it said, lowering its sword, "I won't kill you."_

_"Thank you! Oh goddess, thank y—"_

_"Just like you… didn't… kill the richest looking man in that little band of mercenaries," it rumbled, a horrific gleefulness apparent in its tone, "And just like you…didn't…blame his death on an adolescent boy with no family whom you assumed no one would miss."_

_With a shriek, the director made to turn around, but with unnatural quickness the knight's sword shot out. The director and one off his sons were skewered like morbid kebobs in a single thrust. The sword's fire consumed them from the inside out._

_Meanwhile the mayor had reached his front door. When he fumbled for his keys and looked up however, he was back on the cliff outside the orphanage. He turned around in stupefied horror to see the armor approach him. With a single blow of its sword, the knight reduced the mayor to ashes and bones._

_The ominous knight raised its weapon, pointed it at Decus' unconscious form, and then swung it back toward the crowd. It spoke in a strange language that no one present could understand. With a hum, the burning runic circles reappeared, and not a moment later, the true terror began. Before anyone could blink, creatures that Alice couldn't have imagined in her worst nightmares poured out of the circles in droves, their infernal eyes burning with the same bloodlust that had been present in those in the mob._

_The diabolical creatures weren't much taller than most dogs, but their appearance didn't look like anything that had ever existed on Sylvarant. Their bodies were covered by a red exoskeleton and each had a long tail, ending in a sharp, pointed tip. Their mouths were filled with a multitude of needlelike fangs; their claws were serrated like kitchen knives, and seemed designed for tearing skin, tendons and muscles in the most painful way possible. It wasn't even debatable that these abominations had been specifically created for the sole purpose of butchering and unleashing as much carnage as possible. And though she didn't have any evidence to back it up, Alice somehow knew that their favorite prey were humans._

_Screams erupted from the crowd. Though most of the spectators were safely inside their houses, there were still more than enough defenseless people outside for there to be a full-on massacre._

_"These…these are…demons…?" Alice asked, her voice trembling._

_"Indeed child. Fear not. They will not harm your friend." its voice then took on a tone of sheer malice, "Anyone else however, is to be slaughtered. And don't be surprised that my minions may not be satisfied. Many shall die today. Your tormentors will merely be the first."_

_Unsurprisingly, the first people to make a run for it were the two remaining sons of the orphanage director. The moment they moved, nine of the creatures pounced. The boys howled in terror and agony as seven of them ripped into their backs with their claws and teeth, but their screams of agony didn't last for long._

_They were literally everywhere, with the exception of inside the houses of the people who'd gone inside earlier. At this point, they'd all locked their doors, and hid in their basements if they had any. 'Good for them,' Alice thought feeling oddly detached from the situation._

_Panic ensued. People who only minutes earlier had been cheering over the deaths of two children now scattered everywhere, begging for their lives like they deserved mercy. The humans scattered everywhere, pushing and tripping each other to have a better chance of survival. It didn't do them any good. In fact, Alice thought, they would have had better luck standing together and fighting the demons off. But these people were proving themselves to be exactly what the shadow—no, the demonic armor, had said they were. They were monsters. Selfish beasts who would tread down anyone in their way to survive._

_They ran for the nearest houses they could find, begging their neighbors to let them inside. None of them answered. They would let their neighbors die if that meant that they would survive._

_Everywhere she looked, people were getting torn to shreds by the creatures. Some were being eaten alive. Alice realized with a start, that one of the demons had prowled right up to her, its face not inches way from her own now. Slowly, it opened its mouth. Without any further warning, it unhinged its jaw like a snake, and suddenly its mouth was easily big enough to fit around her whole head._

_She knew what the armor had said, but that didn't mean it was true. She just stood there, paralyzed in terror, not even able to scream. Those things had far too many teeth. Some of the long needle shaped fangs didn't even fit in the demon's mouth, and she could see where they had torn through the flesh of their upper or lower jaws. It stood there, its mouth around her head for a moment. Then, without any apparent reason, it backed away, its soulless eyes glaring at her. It was reluctant to let her live._

_It noticed another person moving however, a woman, and leaped in front of her, stopping her in her tracks. She didn't have time to scream. The demon grabbed her head in its jaws and dragged her to the roof of one of the buildings. Three other demons swooped over her and began eating her alive._

_Alice couldn't see the scene from bellow, but the woman's agonized screams were enough to give her a graphic mental image of what was happening. Unable to take the horrific scene any longer, she fell to her knees and vomited._

_She realized that the demonic armor had made its way over to the orphanage. With a heavy swing, it plunged its burning sword into the ground in front of the door, setting the orphanage ablaze._

_She wanted to look away, but found that despite her revulsion, she couldn't help but survey the carnage. The screams of the residents—screams of pain, fear, or both—filled the air, accompanied by the unnatural roars of the demons. It was something out of a nightmare. Yet as her eyes passed over ashes that had only minutes earlier had been the orphanage director and one of his sons, she couldn't help but feel something other than disgust and terror._

_It was satisfaction._

* * *

**Inn at Thoda Dock**

A redheaded young woman sunk a dagger into Alice's face. It wasn't really Alice's face, just a poster with her picture in it, but there was still some amount of satisfaction to be derived from the small action of vengeance. Her mother and father had been out of town collecting gel ingredients the morning that the orphanage had burned down, and she watched them get killed by the monsters that Alice had summoned when they returned.

The poster showed her smiling cheerfully. You wouldn't have known she was a murderous freak if you just saw in the street.

The poster read: **WANTED: **_**Alice**_**. Crimes: **_**Torture, terrorism, murder, attempted murder and regicide**_**. Reward: 2**_**35,000 gald (Dead)**_**.**

Right beside the poster with Alice's bounty on it was another, showing a man with purple hair. The young woman remembered him very well too:

**WANTED: **_**Decus.**_** Crimes: **_**Terrorism, espionage, pillaging, murder, and genocide**_**. Reward: 1**_**80,000 gald (Dead or alive)**_**.**

Two days ago in Palmacosta, a blonde woman named Alexia who called herself _"General of the Templars,"_ distributed the posters with the rewards for Decus and Alice' heads.

'_As if my personal reasons weren't enough for me to want them dead.'_ she thought angrily, glaring at the bulletin board with the two killers' faces pinned to it. She whipped around and went over to a table where two men were already sitting. Her studded leather armor clinked lightly as she pulled a small folding chair over to the mens' table and sat down.

The first man wore a fairly standard-looking suit of armor, sans helmet. He was a brunet with tough but handsome features.

"Don't worry, Sarah. We'll find them," he told her, reaching across the table and giving her a friendly pat on the shoulder. "We'll make her pay for what she did to you and your family. Don't you agree Vlad?" He asked the second man at the table, at a blonde young man with a patch over his right eye and a scar going from below his chin all the way up his nose and across his patched eye.

"Yeah. I also owe her something for what she did to me, _and_ Hawk, when we were in the Vanguard," he said, tracing the scar with his finger. "I couldn't do anything. I shouldn't have been afraid of her just because she was my superior. But that won't matter now anyway… I can't wait to get my hands on her and make her pay for all she did to me and my companions…sick, sadistic bitch…" he cursed closing his fist.

A scream from outside grabbed the attention of the three bounty hunters. They jumped out of their seats and ran outside. There stood a girl with deathly white hair, dressed in a black and red gothic-lolita outfit looking at the body of a man. He lay motionless before her in a pool of blood, presumably his own.

"She looks familiar, but… hmm… who_ is _that girl?" Vlad asked the brunet. "Has she got a price on her head, Robert?"

He ran back inside and made a full pass of the bulletin board, but the girl's picture wasn't on any of the **WANTED** posters.

Sarah frowned, looking at the girl carefully. It only took her a few moments to figure it out, and when it did, it hit her like a charging bull. Her hair and eyes were different colors and her skin seemed to have taken on a very unhealthy-looking pallor, but there was no doubt that she was the same girl who brought a demonic onslaught to her town.

"Alice…" she spat venomously, just in time for Robert to walk back out and hear her.

"What?" he gaped, "but she's- what the hell _happened_ to her?"

The girl turned her head and looked at her with piercing red eyes.

Vlad began to tremble. There was something about her that made her look even scarier than she already was when she was his superior.

Alice grinned widely and began to walk toward them.

"You know my name… Have we ever met? Or have you just heard about me?"

Vlad gulped. He knew that face. It was the one she wore when she was about to do something particularly awful.

"Why did you kill him?" Sarah asked firmly. She'd known the man that Alice had just killed. A doctor from Asgard.

Alice's smile grew wider.

"Because I could," She answered simply.

Sarah grunted angrily and Robert just glared at her.

"I see you're still the same monster that killed my family back in Hima."

That got Alice's attention.

Hima. The mere mention of the town made her blood boil. Now that she thought about it, the girl _did_ seem a bit familiar

"Aww…" Alice pouted. "Poor little girl. You must have suffered _so much_ without your family," her voice dripping with false sympathy. "It must have been _so_ hard for you. Having to see your parents die must have been awful. I bet they suffered a lot, I feel so bad for them."

"You _monster!_" the girl shrieked, "Don't you dare to talk about them like that!"

"But look at the bright side…" she said in a disturbingly jovial tone, "I had _lots_ of fun."

The truth was, that it wasn't especially amusing, but enrage this girl was, so…

One of the men at the redhead's side, the one with the armor and brown hair, unsheathed his sword. "I'm done with this! Let's just kill this heartless little psychopath!"

The girl grabbed the brunet's arm and detained him.

Alice pouted sadly puffing her checks.

"Stop! Don't give her the satisfaction of letting her manipulate you."

"Yeah, don't let me do that." Alice agreed, still trying to work the red haired girl up.

Once again, the armored man took a step forward, but Sarah stopped him squeezing his arm.

"Don't." she insisted, trying to seem calm, but barely managing to contain her anger, "We have to keep calm if we want to beat her," She looked over at Vlad who was still trying to recompose himself. "That goes for you too; don't let her influence you."

The other man nodded. He took a deep breath and tried to calm down.

"You, _beating me?_" Alice asked, giggling cutely. "Like that could ever happen."

The girl drew her two draggers, spinning them loosely in her hands before gripping them tightly and lowering herself into a battle stance.

"At first I was devastated, but when I finally recovered, I began training. I've been waiting for this day for eight long years. And now, I'm going to make you pay."

The three challengers charged.

"What a lovely story… And quite familiar if I may add," she noted. "But you _are_ forgetting one thing…"

It all happened in a blink of an eye. A huge ice lance materialised behind Alice and impaled the man with the eye patch against the wall of the inn.

"Vlad!" the girl cried. Her eyes widened, dark circles growing apparent beneath them.

'_Who is she?… Who _is_ she?'_ Alice wondered, still trying to figure out the girl's identity and why she recognized her. Deciding that she could think about it when her life wasn't in danger anymore, she sent the girl flying backward in a torrent of icy wind.

The brunet also tried to land a hit on Alice, but she caught his sword on her toy rapier, which she had spontaneously swathed in sturdy ice.

She encased her free hand in a gauntlet of ice with viciously sharp claws. The man tried to jump backwards but found his feet frozen to the ground, stuck in another block of ice.

"_Damn… I should have seen this coming."_ He sighed mentally.

He seemed almost relaxed, letting his sword fall to the ground and closing his eyes tightly. With one swipe of her claws, she opened him up like a present.

"_Robert!_" the girl sobbed, falling to her knees as he saw his body fall limp on the ground.

"Oh! Don't tell me you had feelings for him!?" Alice began to laugh. "This is so good that it must fatten!"

Alice was about to finish the girl off when she suddenly remembered who the girl was.

"That's right, you're Sarah. You were nice to me back when I still lived at the orphanage," she said apathetically.

"That's right," Sarah shouted, "I never believed what everyone told me about you, that you were a Desian and everything. But you repaid me by murdering my parents! That's what I get for trusting a _half-elf!_"

She stood up, her legs shaking, _"_I had finally found a new family," she whispered, almost too quiet for Alice to hear,"And now you've murdered them too! I'll kill you!" she screamed at the top of her lungs even as her voice cracked. She didn't care who heard; Alice would die today, no matter what! She dashed full speed at Alice and let loose with a flurry of swipes from her daggers. Alice didn't feel compelled to move however. She just closed her eyes in concentration, and began to cast a spell.

"_Oh, mistress of pain, embrace those who oppose my will and show them the beauty of agony. Ice garden!"_

Grass and vines made entirely of ice seemed to sprout from beneath Alice's feet, growing in all directions. Vines began to 'grow' around Sarah's body, holding her in place. She shook, trying to break the ice vines but it was useless. The ice was as hard as steel. She was utterly helpless.

Alice walked slowly towards Sarah looking at her with a curious gaze.

"Owww… Look at you, trapped and unable to avenge your friends and family," she shook her head in disappointment. "Tch, tch, tch… It must feel so bad to be impotent."

Sarah soon resigned herself to the fact that there was no point in fighting back.

"You bitch… One day you're going to get what's coming to you, but we'll be going to very different places."

"Save your religious prattle for someone who cares." Alice snapped, her mask of cheerfulness vanishing as she leered up at the girl.

Sarah replied by simply looking her in the eye her with a fearless gaze. It enraged the half-elf more than anything. Did she have no fear of death?

'_She feels she has nothing left to lose,'_ whispered the louder voice in her head, _'so she no longer fears death. Of course, everyone fears pain. Even her.'_

The white-haired smiled and began to leave.

"Well, I'd _really_ like to stand here and catch up, but I've got a boat to catch. Toodle-oo." She said, getting back into character. She turned back for a moment, "I`ll just leave you to chill out here for a while," she grinned diabolically. _"Garden, blossom!"_

Razor sharp thorns sprouted from the icy stems. Roses of pure ice flourished across the frozen ground beneath Sarah, growing redder and redder between screams of pain.

* * *

**Renegade's Base; secret lab.**

"So, you think you can just waltz into my laboratory and start making demands!?" Nickolay shouted with a hint of nervousness in his voice.

"Dammit, I don't have time for this!" Lloyd growled, "Decus and Alice are about to shatter the balance of this world's mana. Just give me back Colette, and I'll be merciful. I might even let you go." Lloyd explained trying to be as patient as possible, which was obscenely difficult considering that the scientist was the most offensively annoying and socially awkward person that he had ever met. And with Lloyd, that was saying something; suffice to say, eighty percent of his body was itching to start pounding the infuriating half-elf.

"Insolent inferior being! How dare you to talk to me like that." Nickolay grunted even as he too a step back. "I'll teach you to respect my superiority!"

Lloyd groaned.

"What a letdown…" Lloyd sighed pointing his swords at him, "I'd figured out that you were arrogant, and probably more of an egomaniac than Zelos, but honestly… for a moment I actually thought that you weren't exactly like those racists Desians. I'll be honest, I'm disappointed."

"Racism?" Nickolay asked, looking at him in confusion. After a moment he just burst into a fit of giggling. "Oh, I'm sorry. Forgive me. It seems I've given you the wrong impression. When I called you inferior being, I wasn't referring to the difference between our species." The scientist began clicking the buttons on his bracelet in some complex sequence. "I was merely referring to the immense difference between our intellects!" he shouted cheerfully, lifting up his arms dramatically, as though he expected confetti to start raining down on the two of them.

Twenty seconds went by with absolutely nothing changing. Nickolay remained in the same position. Lloyd began to look around with a confused gaze.

"Uh… right…" the swordsman drawled, "Whatever dude. I just came for my friend so–"

"Hold that thought!" Nickolay halted him with his hand and began clicking the keys on his bracelet frantically.

"Wait a moment, wait a moment, there must be something going wrong with the— Aha! Here it is!" the scientist jolted in excitement as Lloyd watched with complete disinterest. Nickolay pressed one last button looking very satisfied with himself.

—Bzzt— went a buzzer on his watch. Nickolay seemed to lose much of his annoyingly smug demeanor in an instant.

"Critical Error? Interface error #1402? **_Restart the program?! _**_Dear merciful gods!_ I don't have _time_ for this!"

A drop of cold sweat slid down Lloyd's forehead as Nickolay started swearing incoherently at the machine on his wrist. The scene before him was so pathetically awkward. He was beginning to feel really embarrassed for the man, despite being the only other person in the room.

"Uh, don't mean to interrupt, but I'm kinda on a schedule here," Lloyd prodded, going completely unnoticed.

Finally after watching the scientist arguing with the inanimate object on his wrist, two floating spherical devices similar to the ones used by the Grand Cardinals appeared at Nickolay's sides.

"Finally!" the pink haired scientist sighed in relief. "Okay, now kill him."

"Figures," Lloyd grumbled, drawing his swords.

The two robots obeyed Nickolay's command and rushed the swordsman.

They opened from the middle, revealing two mana blades that lit up and began rotating like propellers.

Lloyd was able to dodge the first and deflect the second, but the robots turned back quickly and attacked again. The robots repeated this strategy over and over again, attacking Lloyd from all sides with quick attacks followed by quicker retreats.

The simple but effective strategy bore fruit as they eventually began to overwhelm the swordsman.

"That's all you're able to do? How disappointing." Nickolay said, sounding as bored as Lloyd had been only a few minutes earlier. "I was expecting you to give a fight back, but I guess you're all bark and no bite. You're nothing to my masterpieces," the scientist bragged. "Well, may as well finish him off."

The two spheres stopped attacking Lloyd and changed their strategy. One of them flew away and the other lunged on him. Lloyd parried the attack, crossing his swords.

While one robot kept trying to chop Lloyd down the intentions of the other became clear when it turned back and rushed on Lloyd who jumped aside. The blades of the two machines ripped through one another. They both fell to the floor and exploding pathetically.

"You might want to postpone your victory party." Lloyd said with a grin. However Nickolay was nowhere to be seen. "What? Did he escape?"

"On the contrary. Everything went exactly as planned," the scientist whispered at his ear.

"_What the hell!? How did he move so fast!?"_

The swordsman spun around in an attack that would have sliced the scientist in half, but when the sword was barely inches away, the scientist vanished and reappeared on the other side of the room.

"_Did he just teleport?"_ Lloyd thought surprised. Only his father, Yuan, Mithos, Richter and a very short list of others had shown such a skill. The scientist couldn't possibly be at their level by any stretch of the imagination. So what was he doing?

"Impressed?" Nickolay asked, passing a familiar looking exphere from hand to hand. Lloyd looked at his hand immediately. His mother's exphere wasn't attached to the key crest.

The pink haired scientist put the exphere into one of his lab coat pockets.

"How—?"

"Yes! I can teleport!" Nickolay answered before Lloyd was able to ask. "Impressive, no?" he ignited his mana saber and began warping around the room, seemingly at random. "Can you see it now? Can you see the difference between our levels?"

Nickolay teleported right behind him and tried to strike Lloyd who barely reacted fast enough to dodge the blow. The scientist repeated the same tactic and this time landed a slash to the swordsman's shoulder.

Lloyd turned and tried to counterattack but the scientist teleported away before his sword was even got close.

"Damn!" Lloyd spat. _'He's moving way too fast. How am I supposed to get past him like this?'_

"I can't wait to do some research on you. _Project Number 46_. Yes, that should still be available."

Lloyd grunted angrily.

How could he warp like that? Not even his father or Mithos could do it in such quick succession without expending their energy! This joker shouldn't be able to do anything even close. Unless… this was just like those pointless machines. Another trick…

Nickolay turned off his sword and smiled arrogantly.

"I have an idea, _Number 46_! I _can_ call you that, right?" he asked, seeming genuinely concerned. "Why don't you surrender so I can run tests on you while your body is in almost perfect condition?"

Lloyd rolled his eyes. This guy was _really_ pissing him off.

"I'll make you a deal. If you surrender now, I promise I won't conduct any potentially lethal tests on your little blonde friend. Think about it, you'll be able to stay with her," he explained cheerfully, "Of course if you become an exbeula I'll have to keep you away from her since I can't risk the bodies of my precious specimens. Either way, I'm going to run tests on the two of you, but if you agree now, you can at the very least spend your time together as my test subjects. Think about it, _Number 46_! I think it's very a good deal."

"Okay, first of all, don't call me _Number 46_. It's not nearly as offensive as it is annoying," Lloyd groaned, "And second, I've come here to get Colette out of here. _Neither_ of us is staying. I'm not leaving without her, and honestly, if you valued your own well-being at all, you'd have gone and let her go by now." Lloyd smiled and took his swordsman position. "If you're really better than me, let me see your best technique."

Nickolay took a step back, surprised by the subjects response. How could he be so obstinate to challenge him? Wasn't he aware of his situation?

"For someone in your position, you have an awfully big mouth, _Number 46_. What are you going to do against my overwhelming superiority in both intellect and skill without your exphere?"

Lloyd dug something out of his pocket.

"Well… here's the thing," Lloyd said with a grin, "Almost everything about what you just said is completely wrong."

"Uh–?"

"Fist of all, see that exphere you've got in your hand there?"

"You mean this one?" The scientist answered, showing the exphere with a triumphant smile.

"Yep, that one. Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but, well… why don't you try dropping it?"

Nickolay stared flatly at him for a moment.

"You really think I'll fall for that? You really _are_ inferior."

"It's a fake," Lloyd insisted, "Just take a close look at it."

"You–you're _kidding_," the scientist took the exphere and examined it attentively, "If it was a fake I would…I would…have…" noticed that the exphere had small air bubbles inside. It was made of glass. It was about as valuable as a child's marble.

Nickolay raised his arm and shattered the fake exphere against the ground furiously. He didn't know what made him angrier; the fact that the exphere was a fake, or the fact he'd been tricked by a boy who thought that a square root was a square part of a tree.

"I always keep the real one with me." Lloyd told him as he dug another exphere out of his pocket, placing it into the key crest on his left hand. "I figured that that certain people might try to take my exphere, so I made that glass copy. I was raised by a dwarf, so I'm great at all sorts of crafts."

Seeing his chance, Nickolay warped back over to Lloyd's sideand snatched the exphere right out of Lloyd's key crest before teleporting back to a safe distance.

Lloyd smiled, _'Just like I thought.'_

"Ha! You fool!" the pink haired scientist laughed hysterically, "How pathetically careless! You've just lost your only chance of beating me! Now that I have the real one you're _finished!_"

"Well… no," Lloyd smiled sympathetically. "That one you have there is a fake too." He reached into another pocket and pulled out six more and juggled them for a moment before pocketing them again.

The scientist looked at it, saw the imperfections and hurled it at the opposite wall, where it shattered like the glass object it was. "Are you _toying_ with me!?"

"Not at all, I wanted to test something."

That took Nickolay by surprise and only served to irritate him even more. The moron? Doing tests on _him!?_ _He was the scientist!_

"_What do you mean?!_"

"When you started teleporting like an angel on drugs, I began to wonder how you were doing it so fast. I've only met a few people who can do it at all, and all of them couldn't do it more than once or twice. So I asked myself: How was a powerless loon like you doing it? I'll admit that you had me fooled for a minute, but then it hit me: You were doing the same thing you did when you first attacked me with those drones: You're just using more machines." The scientist went stiff. Did he notice? "So just to make sure, I had you to teleport one more time to prove my suspicions. This whole room must be rigged with teleport devices under the floor, and that bracelet you're wearing allows you to use them at will."

Nickolay couldn't believe that the kid had figured out how his whole system worked.

"You were right when you said that you were more intelligent than me. My own best friend won't let me forget that he's twice as smart as I am. But when it comes to fighting, a weakling like you couldn't hope to trick me." Lloyd concluded.

_'That brat! How dare he make a fool of me like this!' _Nickolay fumed silently before losing his temper completely.

"So what!" The scientist shouted. "This changes nothing! I still can teleport, and you can't! And there's nothing you can do about it!" he shouted, glaring at Lloyd.

"Oh! About that, before I forget! You remember the Angelus Project? The thing that you thought you just stole from me twice?" Lloyd showed Nickolay the back of his hand and smiled. "This is the real one. I actually used this conversation to distract you while I put it back on."

Without a moment's hesitation, Nickolay warped over to Lloyd's position again. Before his feet even touched the ground, he felt a fist connect with his jaw and found himself staring at the ceiling. He picked himself up haltingly, shaking as he got to his feet only to see Lloyd glaring at him, his demeanor having already made the transition from smug to serious.

"You really think I'd just let you take it? You're smart, and you have the advantage of having access to Desian research, so you know what it is." Lloyd asked, not waiting for an answer, "This is all that was left of my mom after she died. This is my mom's soul, and the day you take it from me is the day that you pry it out of my cold, dead hands. And you can be sure that'll never happen."

"_Shut up!_" The scientist demanded, tightening his grip on his mana saber in rage, reigniting it. Not even bothering to teleport this time, he charged at the swordsman. Lloyd just parried the attack and sent Nickolay sprawling to the floor with a well-placed kick. Lloyd raised his swords, preparing to strike a second time.

The mad scientist was fast enough to teleport far from the swordsman before he could land another blow on him, but despite having dodged the second attack, he'd taken some painful hits. He realized that his nose was bleeding and he had several cuts on his face, all of which were still bleeding.

"You have no right to mock me! I am Doctor Nickolay Madlalov, the greatest mind Aselia has ever seen! _You–_" he pointed at the brunet. "You're nothing but a _test subject_! How _dare_ you humiliate me like this!" the scientist wheezed. "I won't forgive you for this! Forget about the experiments! I'm going to kill you!"

Lloyd ignored the scientist's ranting and concentrated on his swords, summoning the powers of Kratos' _Flamberge_ and Dirk's _Vorpal Sword_. His right sword was engulfed by incandescent flames and his left was surrounded by a cold blue mist.

"That's it! I didn't expect to be put into a position in which I'd need to rely on _him_, but you've forced my hand!" the scientist continued his tirade.

Nickolay took off his labcoat and to Lloyd's dismay, also removed his shirt. He would have been tempted to make a snarky comment except that the scientist's upper body was a rather disturbing sight: His left arm, shoulder and part of his chest were covered by a gray-green, similar to Rodyle's after he had improperly equipped Colette's Cruxis crystal. Unsurprisingly, it appeared as though there was just such a crystal glowing from its place inside a key crest on Nickolay's chest.

"You've already met Dr. Nickolay, but there's something you don't know about me." The scientist put his hand on the key crest and tore it violently off his body, tossing it aside like trash. "Allow me to introduce you…to my _other self_…"

The wounds on his face regenerated almost instantly, but that wasn't the most noticible change. Nickolay's muscles began to swell, and his whole body began to turn the same sickly grey-green hue. Claws sprouted from his fingertips, his teeth seemed to extend until they were all frighteningly sharp, and his eyes turned a murky shade of bloody red. Lloyd thought he might have actually grown a few inches during his transformation, but he couldn't be completely certain. In any case, the creature that Nickolay had become didn't give him the time to think about it.

With a primal roar, the now monstrous scientist stomped over to Lloyd, who barely dodged as a heavy fist slammed into the floor creating a spiderweb of cracks in the tiles.

"It's useless." Lloyd concentrated, leaping into the air in preparation to perform his Rising Falcon technique. "This is _over_ Nickolay." He dived forward swords-first, completing his attack, but surprisingly, the bulked-up scientist dodged the blow and delivered a powerful kick to his stomach, sending him rolling across the floor all the way to the other side of the room.

"Eheheheh," the creature chuckled, his voice deeper and slightly distorted, "Nickolay? I'm afraid you've just missed him. I am Mr. Madlalov. Allow me to show you my…hospitality."

And he charged.

* * *

**Well, I hope you liked it. Don't worry, it won't take me again 3 months to update. **

**As always reviews and critiare apreciated. See you in the next chapter!**


	27. The seal of water

**Author notes: It only took me almost three months. Yeah, I know is too much and I'm working on it. Well, I hope that at least the length makes it up for it... A little at least.**

**Anonymous Reviews: **_**None**_

* * *

**EPISODE 2: THE JOURNEY OF DEGENERATION**

**Chapter 27: The seal of water**

* * *

**Thoda Island**

A group of tourists were watching the geysers in front of the mountain while the guide gave the pertinent explanation.

"A geyser is a spring characterized by intermittent discharges of water followed by a hot steam. The formation of a geyser is due very specific hydrogeological conditions that only are found in a few places of Aselia. In fact, here on Thoda island, you can find a third of all the geysers currently known."

"The cave that you can see behind the geyser when it recedes is the entrance to the ancient Seal of Water where it's said that Undine, the summon spirit of water, resides." The guide blinked, suddenly looking past the crowd, not believing what he was seeing. "What the—"

Noticing this, all the tourists turned their heads to follow their guide's gaze. There was a girl in black clothes approaching the island. It was something thing that would seem normal enough, except that she was literally walking over the sea, the water freezing under her feet.

Her hair was white like snow and her red eyes looked empty and lifeless.

As she neared the geysers everyone stepped back, intimidated by her mere presence, and giving her clear passage through the crowd.

Alice smiled proudly, and although something told her that her facial expression was bordering on maniacal, that part of her was just another useless part to be discarded. _This_ was what she wanted: For people to cower in fear as she walked by, for the thought of challenging her to be as unthinkable as challenging the sun itself. Once the last Sylvaranti seal was closed, no one would be able to stand against her. No one would ever be able to hurt her again. The whole world would tremble before her. Once the last seal was closed she would finally have what she had always desired: Unyielding power.

"She looks like that girl from the Vanguard," someone in the crowd whispered.

"Yeah, she looks like Alice."

"It can't be her. She had gold eyes and blonde hair."

Alice ignored the social commentary and continued on her way to her destination. The tour guide group ran and intercepted her and stopped her grabbing her by the shoulder.

"I-I'm very sorry miss, but you can't keep walking. It's far too dangerous. The vapor is scalding hot and—"

"I'll be the judge of that, weakling," she replied.

The geysers erupted again but before it had even reached halfway to its apex, it froze completely solid, leaving a somewhat jagged path right up to the cave entrance. The guide just stood there, completely gobsmacked.

"How— How you did that?"

Alice ignored him and walked to the cavern entrance.

"Hey! Wait you go in there without—"

The guide tried to lift his arm but it was completely numb. When he looked at it, he noticed that his had hand was developing severe frostbite. The guard knelt and began to scream in pain as a thin cover of ice crystals began to climb through his arm.

The tourists began to run away to the boats in fear while two men took the guide with them.

Alice closed her eyes as she entered into the cave and smiled at how effortless it had been to freeze the blood in his veins until it had expanded. It wasn't her fault though. If he wanted to keep his left arm, he should never have touched her with that filthy hand of his.

Life was good. And it would only get better from now on.

* * *

**Near Thoda Dock**

"Lord Emil, if I may, why am I bothering with this impertinent dreck? Need I remind you of the atrocities he committed as a member of the Vanguard? How many times did he try to kill you? Three, four?" Tenebrae complained as he readjusted Decus' limp body on his back to keep him from falling.

Marta bit her lip. The Centurion of Darkness had been complaining about his situation since they took Decus unconscious form two hours ago. She was one comment short of exploding like a superheated potato.

"He weights a lot. I have more than five thousand years behind me, this cannot be good for my back," the Centurion complained again.

"Also, Raine told me that you don't have a spine, or at least not as we know one. You _can't_ hurt your back," Emil pointed out, "In fact, if she's right, you couldn't hurt back even if you tried."

Tenebrae grumbled something along the lines of, "Why was _this_ the sort of thing he remembered and not how many times the weight on his back had tried to chop him in half."

"For Martel's sake! _Shut up!_ Just _shut up_ Tenebrae!" Marta shouted making Emil and the Centurion both jump. "You've been complaining for two straight hours now. We get it already! You don't want to carry him! We! Don't! Care!"

There was an uncomfortable silence. Marta was breathing heavily while her two companions eyed her in shock.

"Well, that was a disturbing reaction," Tenebrae responded as his composure returned to him. "I read something that said that females of your species can become more irrational on certain days of the month. Is this your designated time?" the centurion asked, seeming concerned.

To nobody's surprise, his apparent concern didn't seem to be perceived as such by the brunette, who suddenly tried to jump the Centurion like a rabid dog. Luckily for Tenebrae, Emil was faster and grabbed her wrists before she could beat him into whipped cream for his inappropriate comment.

"Calm down Marta! He didn't mean it in that way!" Emil said trying to calm down his

"Let me kill him! Let me wring his neck! Just a little! I promise you he won't suffer too much!"

"I apologize, Lady Marta. Did I say something to upset you? I'm afraid that I do not understand the severity of your reaction. Perhaps I underestimated the hormonal effects produced by human females on said days of the month. Are they actually worse than I have been lead to believe?"

"Gyyaaah!"

"Tenebrae, you're making this so much worse!" Emil yelped as he struggled to hold Marta back. A somewhat distracted part of him made a note that he would have to remember what day it was today. Specifically the next time he got the urge to tease Marta. He certainly didn't want to upset her if this would be the result. "And Marta, please, _please_ calm down. You know how…er… blunt… he can be."

On the other hand, he thought, she was having a pretty bad day today. What with accidentally revealing an embarrassing story about herself, and Tenebrae's constant tactless remarks, which were already stirring her up before he even started complaining.

"You never show me proper respect," Tenebrae complained.

Though he didn't loosen his grip on Marta's arms, Emil let his shoulders fall into a slouch. He just stood there with a slack-jawed expression on his face, and for a moment, he toyed with the idea of just letting go of her so that she could rough the Centurion up a bit. Or a lot. And so, he vocalized his decision:

"Okay, Tenebrae, I can't tell whether you're suicidal or just plain masochistic," he groaned, "but the next time she gets like this because you won't stop provoking her, I'm letting her pound you until you look like you've been through an automatic meat tenderizer."

"Wha— what's going on here? Where am I?" Decus suddenly asked, sounding positively frantic as he regained consciousness with a jolt.

Everyone went still as statues. Tenebrae's mouth was open as if he had been about to respond to Emil before Decus had derailed the conversation. Nobody moved, and nobody made so much as a peep. The Centurion observed that he probably could have heard a pin drop, and that would have been impressive considering that they were in a mildly sandy field close to the beach.

Emil actually _was_ moving, though he was trying to be discreet about it. He had pulled out a small pad of paper, wrote down _'26th of Ragnome,'_ folded the note up and stashed it back in his pocket.

"Owww… My aching head…" The purple-haired swordsman tried to rub his forehead with his left hand, but when he tried he noticed that his right hand was being pulled along with it. "What the…? Why am I wearing Alice's handcuffs?"

He finally noticed that he wasn't actually on the ground, but draped haphazardly over an object floating over it. "Hwaugh!"

"Oi!" Tenebrae plucked Decus from where he hung, holding him by the head in his hand-shaped tail and forced him to look directly into his eyes. "If it wouldn't be too much trouble," he grumbled irritably, "Please stop moving around. I assure you that I am not enjoying this any more than you are."

The swordsman blinked twice. Everything was happening so fast. He didn't have the first clue as to what was going on. And what the heck was this weird floating dog talking about? Of course Tenebrae didn't notice. Nor did he care about any of the possible scenarios playing themselves out in Decus' mind. Therefore, he released the young man's head from his grip, and let him fall unceremoniously to the ground about three feet below.

"Tenebrae!" Marta and Emil complained in unison.

"What is it? Don't blame me for this! We all knew that this was going to happen eventually."

Marta and Emil picked Decus from under his arms, and manoeuvred him into a standing position.

"Damn… That hurts. But the pain in my body is nothing compared to the pain in my heart," he said with a tone of melancholy, "Thank's kid, you too Marta."

Something clicked in his head.

"_Wait-a-minute!_ You guys are my dual nemeses! What the hell's going on?"

Decus shook himself free of their grip and scrambled backwards, taking up a defensive stance. Or at least, as close to one as he could manage with his hands and feet in shackles.

"Start explaining this to me. What are you doing? What do you want? If you think taking me as a hostage will benefit you for any possible reason, you're gravely mistaken! I would die before betraying my beloved Alice to you. Nothing you could do to me would ever make me tell you where she is."

"Calm down Decus," Marta said, shaking her head vigorously. "You're not our hostage."

"Then why am I stuck in these handcuffs?" he shouted, waving his hands right in Emil's nose.

"Perhaps they've taken some protective measures?" Tenebrae answered rhetorically, "The last two times we crossed paths with you, you tried to kill them. I'll admit however that you were nothing but courteous when we saw you in Hima."

He blushed in shame, "Oh… right, of course. To be fair, I have nothing against you but… but…" Decus choked, tears welling up in his eyes. "Alice-e-e-e." He knelt on the floor and began to bawl like a character from a poorly written romantic pulp novel. The Centurion of Darkness puffed out a long breath. This nutcase was unbelievable. He had met his fair share of idiots, maniacs, and lunatics over the years, but never had he met someone as erratically emotional as Alice's eccentric admirer in his entire lifetime of over four thousand years.

"I am _so_ sorry, Alice. I truly love you." he bowed and began to beg. "I should never have betrayed you. Forgive me Alice, please, forgive me."

"I hope you realize that you haven't a prayer of getting your words to reach her ears," Tenebrae noted irritably.

That lit the powder keg that was Marta's frayed temper explode and she slapped the Centurion hard in the face.

"Stop being a such a jerk Tenebrae! Can't you see he's suffering?"

For once Tenebrae did as he was told. "I suppose I deserved that one."

The girl knelt at his side, embraced him and patted his back reassuringly. She knew he was an enemy, that he was dangerous, unpredictable, and that he had indeed tried to kill them on several occasions, but somehow, she couldn't be angry at him at this particular moment, a testament to her strong empathy. Maybe it also had something to do with her romantic view of life and the fact that Alice never returned his feelings no matter how hard he tried.

"Calm down Decus. It's alright."

"No, it's not. Alice hates me! I _betrayed_ her. I'm filthy, vile, putrescent, repulsive scum."

He had mentioned that a moment ago. That he betrayed her. She remembered hearing him say that he had betrayed Alice earlier as well, just before he had fainted. Emil couldn't imagine Decus betraying Alice. What had really happened?

"You keep saying that you betrayed her, but I really doubt that. Could you tell us what happened?"

Decus swallowed and did his best to explain the whole situation to them. And when he did, he poured his heart out, letting everything he had into the outlets that sat with him.

He told them of how he and Alice had discovered the power of Cruxis Crystals, how Alice's body changed every time they closed a seal, and how despite gaining more power each time, she only felt angrier. He told them how Alice's behavior grew more and more violent, and unpredictable each time they closed a seal.

Finally he told them about what happened before they had found them. About his so-called 'betrayal.'

"I really wanted what was best for her, I swear! But when I tried to remove the Cruxis Crystal, she woke up. It was almost like _it_ didn't want to come off and made her stop me. And when she saw me, she accused me of trying to steal her power. It was nothing like that! I just wanted to help her! Something's wrong with her. She's…different from how she—"

"Yeah, we know, you've gone over this bit already, but you were almost finished I think," Emil prompted him, "Could you finish telling us what happened?"

Decus nodded. "She decided that I was just another enemy right then and there. She didn't even think about it. She just left me behind. That awful thing is doing this to her, I'm sure of it! I… I just I need to get that damned crystal off of her before it changes her for good, or worse."

Emil and Marta had both heard the stories of Colette and Presea, and how their Cruxis Crystal and exphere respectively had changed them, gradually losing their humanity until they were reduced to emotionless puppets, becoming almost completely inert. It was possible that Alice was going through something similar, and that Colette's Cruxis Crystal had begun to affect her mentally as each seal was closed and lost its link with the chosen.

"It's not your fault Decus, you did what you thought was best for her." Marta said comfortingly.

"Yeah, don't worry about a thing. We'll help you, we can do this! 'Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality.'"

That last quote hit Decus head like a slap to the face. He had always tried to play it cool with everyone, even with his enemies, but that redheaded egomaniac was a different story. He positively resented him.

"Don't ever say that again." The purple-haired swordsman warned, "Not in front of me."

Maybe it was because he couldn't stand his pretentious attitude, or maybe it was because Alice always seemed to be more interested in Richter than in him, but end result was the same. He'd ended up despising that guy.

"Don't try to win me over with his cheap inspirational quotes."

"Cheap inspirational quotes!?" Emil asked indignantly.

Richter was the man who had given him the strength to fight for himself and for what he believed in. The words 'courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality' had been the ones that had pushed him forward and give him the ability to push forward in the face of overwhelming odds. He didn't care who they were, he wasn't going to let anyone insult his mentor.

"Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality isn't cheap! It's—"

"Total bullshit." Decus interrupted him. "It's a bundle of lies wrapped up in a pretty looking box to influence impressionable people."

"That's not true!" Emil countered, "If Richter had never said that to me, I'd be—"

"Look, I'm sorry to trample on your ideals—seriously kid, I mean it—but I don't even think _he_ believed half the crap he said."

"How can you say that?" Emil shouted. "Courage was what made me into the person I am today! It literally _did_ make my dreams come true!"

"Emil, calm down." Marta said, effectively switching roles with him from only a few minutes prior.

"Yeah suuuure." Decus drawled sarcastically. "And that's why he tried to make a deal with the demons; because they'd have given him courage in exchange for opening the gates of Hell."

Decus' reasoning shut Emil up instantly. He had never thought about it in that way. Though it wasn't quite the same thing.

"Face it kid. He did the same thing to you that he did with everyone: He just came up, tossed that meaningless suggestion at you like he did with everyone else, and you bought it hook, line and sinker. He was quite good at making himself look impressive." Decus grumbled as he remembered his days in the Vanguard. The conversations that he had with his beloved Alice…It only served to infuriate him further. "Alice and I were his allies. Did he even _ask_ about us when you faced him at the bottom of the Ginnungagap?"

Emil wasn't able to contradict Decus. It was true; he didn't seem to care about his allies. Not even Aqua, despite everything she did for him, including betraying her master.

"Hell! I'd even bet that he didn't plan on keeping his end of the deal."

Again, true. Richter never had the intention of opening the gates of Niflheim. Of course, that was a good thing. On the other hand, his callous behaviour toward the people he claimed to be in charge of was rowing apparent the more they discussed him. He was beginning to understand why Decus harboured all this anger towards him.

Then he remembered what Richter had said to him _after_ teaching him the words that would become his motto.

'_A human with a few screws loose taught me that.'_

"Decus. Richter isn't the one who came up with that particular line."

"Oh, this'll be good," he replied sarcastically.

"I'm serious! The one who did…well, you could actually say it was me, to a certain extent. A man named Aster who worked with him at Sybak. Ratatosk killed him before he created me, and used his body as the model for mine."

"I'll be honest, that's pretty morose," Decus replied, looking somewhat disgusted.

"Well, it _is_ creepy. But if I lived my life thinking that I was some sort of walking corpse all the time, I'd become more than a little introverted, don't you think?"

The man didn't have an answer for him this time.

They stood there, not saying anything, nothing but the sound of distant marching disturbing the silence. At first Emil had wanted to keep Decus with them so that he could ask him a question, but now he wasn't so sure. He would be lying to himself if he said that he wasn't afraid to hear the answer.

In the end though, he didn't need to ask. Marta did it for him.

"Why did you do it? Why did you kill all those people?"

Decus was surprised at her question. Didn't he already answer this question before their battle in the Ginnungagap?

"I already told you. I did it for Alice."

"Was it even Alice's plan?" Emil asked, a little skeptical.

"What!? No, of course not! I was following Brute's orders." Decus clarified. "Alice wanted to know everything about everyone when she and I joined the Vanguard, so I began to spy on Richter. It didn't take long before I had figured out that Richter had his own private agenda. Naturally Alice wanted to know every detail. She blackmailed him and threatened to reveal his plans to Commander Brute." Decus explained.

Marta was surprised that Decus could have obtained all that information from someone as painstakingly cautious as Richter without being noticed. On the other hand, Decus was the leader of the espionage division in the Vanguard, which meant that despite his eccentricities, he was likely very good at what he did. Considering that he constantly was making desperate and, more often than not, embarrassing grabs for Alice's affections, it was hard to believe. Apparently he was a more intelligent spy than she gave him credit for.

"With all the information I gave to my dear Alice, Richter had no other option but to tell her everything. She saw an opportunity for obtaining immense power, and when she joined him, I followed, naturally. Unfortunately for us, it wasn't long before your friend Lloyd decided to stick a wrench in our plans…or a sword, I guess. Eventually, we unanimously decided that we needed to create a distraction in order to keep him busy. That's when he started telling Brute about the Centurion's Cores and that they could somehow be used to further his painfully unattainable goal of restoring the old Sylvarant Dynasty…er…" Decus glanced at Marta but she didn't seem to mind his comment so he continued. "Anyway, Richter told Brute about Solum's Core and its properties. Your great hero conveniently forgot to tell _either of us_ about the _side effects_ that Centurion's Cores had over humans. With Solum's core in his possession, Brute decided to attack Palmacosta using someone disguised as Lloyd. I was ordered to lead that attack. They said that the psychological tests I took before joining the Vanguard revealed that I was 'morally flexible,' or something like that, and apparently that made me the perfect person to do it. I assume you know the rest."

Decus looked at his feet in shame. "Look, if I hadn't done it, someone else would have. I'm not trying to excuse my actions but…"

"I understand." Emil said, keeping his voice from shaking.

Emil's worst suspicious were true, Richter was directly involved with the massacre in Palmacosta. Deep down, he had always known, but whenever the thought occurred to him, he denied it. He didn't want to believe that the man who inspired him to become a better person was the instigator of the Blood Purge.

"My apologies for interrupting this genuinely interesting conversation," said Tenebrae with a surprising amount of honesty present in his voice, "but we appear to have company."

Before they even realised what was happening, a unit of heavily armored knights had completely surrounded them. Emil and Marta drew their sword and spinner respectively and stood back to back. The one who seemed to be the leader of the group began to clap them and removed her helmet, revealing cold eyes and a shock of blonde hair. It was Alexia, the leader of the Pope's Templars.

Emil and Marta sheathed their weapons and sighed with relief. At least it was someone they knew.

"Excellent work…Emil and Marta if I'm not mistaken. I see you've captured this murderer," she said resolutely, "Turn him over to me. He must be punished for his crimes."

The Commandant took another look at the group of teenagers. "Just as I suspected. She is no longer travelling with him. This confirms that Alice is the culprit behind the murders at Thoda dock."

"She did what!?" Marta shouted in shock. Why? Why was she doing this? Couldn't she see that she was just digging her own grave? Alice was _not_ making this easy.

"She killed two unlucky bounty hunters as well as a person we have yet to identify. The corpse was found in the nearby House of Salvation, if you can even call it a corpse. There was virtually nothing left of the victim aside from a stain on the floor. We also found a girl entangled in what looked like an ice sculpture of a rosebush, complete with needle-like thorns. She survived, and was still alive when we left, however she has lost a great deal of blood and I cannot ensure she will not die of her wounds." Alexia explained all this with practiced calm, and seeming eerily unaffected by what she found. "We suspect that Alice is heading to Thoda Island. I knew I made the right choice when I sent a legion of my knights there."

Decus frowned. Alice must be well on her way toward closing the last seal. If she succeeded, well… he preferred not to think about what would happen if she closed the Seal of Water. He knew what he had to do; he had to stop her, for her own sake. Unfortunately, being the kid's captive was something of a setback, and if the Papal Knights captured him, he could say goodbye to any chance of saving her. Before he could even think of a plan however, Alexia gave the order:

"Soldiers! Retrieve the prisoner!"

"Yes, Madam Commandant!"

Decus took a halting step backwards. "_Dammit! Come on, Decus, think… Think!_" he hissed to himself, _"Think of something and think of it fast!"_

Apparently it was his lucky day.

Not because he had thought of something, but because he really did get a lucky break.

Right as the soldiers went to apprehend the violet-headed swordsman, Emil interposed himself between the knights and Decus, holding his arms out to the sides in a universal gesture of 'do not pass.'

"What are you doing?" Alexia demanded, her icy calm finally giving way to the aggression that boiled beneath the surface. It was easy to see that she wasn't pleased at all with the boy's interference.

"I'm sorry, but I have to know what you plan on doing with him," Emil answered, trying to sound brave, or at least sure of himself. While he certainly wasn't a coward anymore, standing up to this woman was extremely difficult. There was no denying that Alexia was very intimidating.

"The Pope commanded me to find and execute the criminals Alice and Decus for killing the King of Tethe'alla." she recited impatiently. "Now stand aside and let my soldiers take him."

"Obey the commandant's orders, impertinent boy," said one of the knights as he took Emil by the shoulder and tried unsuccessfully to shove him away.

"No!"

Emil pushed the knight back, with considerably more success, and again kept himself between the knights and Decus.

"Can someone please explain what's going on?" The captive in question asked. Why was the kid defending him? He knew he was his fan, but going this far to defend him? Maybe the kid had really fallen in love with him after all.

"_Poor kid. I'll have to break his heart again."_

"Emil?" Marta said his name inquisitively. She had to admit that she was a little surprised by his attitude. She wanted to help Decus too, but going so far as to risk one's life to defend him after all he did? She knew he wasn't the only participant in the Blood Purge, but that didn't make him innocent, and even if part of her wanted to forgive him, she just couldn't forget his crimes. She was in Palmacosta when he did it after all.

"What are you doing, Emil?" Alexia inquired in a threatening voice.

"Yes, Lord Emil, what are you doing?" Tenebrae asked. "Or rather, what in the world are you thinking?! Why are you defending _him_ of all the people? Stop wasting time and leave Decus to his fate. Do I have to remind you what's going to happen if Alice closes the last Sylvaranti seal?"

"I know, I know, but killing him isn't going to solve anything."

Alexia drew her poleaxe and pointed the blade at him, the polished metal gleaming dramatically in the sunlight. "Listen, ignorant boy, I have absolutely no time for this. If you refuse to turn Decus over to us, we won't hesitate to take him by force."

"But you'll kill him! What good can possibly come of this?"

"What should we do then? Forgive him? He is a _mass murderer!_ Give him to us this instant!" She shouted furiously, "Step aside this instant or I will label you as a hostile, and if I do that, you have minutes to live at best."

"If you want me to offer him up on a silver platter, then I'll do it when you explain exactly how killing him does anything other than lower ourselves down to his level!" Emil said, suddenly feeling incredibly confident, raising his voice with each sentence until he was shouting right back at the Templar Commandant, "Won't that make _us_ murderers too? Does execution of a criminal mean it isn't just another murder?! No good comes from revenge! I learned that lesson firsthand!" Emil explained, panting from having screamed for so long. Unfortunately, aside from Tenebrae, Marta, and possibly Decus, no one else seemed to care for his arguments. In fact, if anything, Alexia looked more outraged than she had before.

"I have no more patience for this," she whispered, but that whisper launched her into a roar, "I've had enough of you and your grotesquely idealistic view of the world, and I've had enough of listening to your pathetically naïve notion that you could possibly know better than the Pope, and by extension the Goddess Martel herself!"

"I never said—"

"I'm done with this," Alexia snarled. She then drove her halberd into the ground, looked toward the sky, placed her right hand over her heart, and her left on the haft of her weapon.

"In the name of the Goddess Martel, and by the power invested in me by Her messenger the Pope, I declare you all traitors to Meltokio!" she declared, "Surrender now and we'll offer you a fair trial. Try to hinder us, and you will force us to execute you!

"This murderer will face Martel's divine judgement, even if it means we have to step over your corpses to get to him. Just know that it was you that forced my hand."

"What!?" Emil and Marta exclaimed in unison. Was she really going to attack them? And she was blaming _them_ for their own potential murder at her hands?!

"Soldiers! Take them all! If they resist, don't hesitate."

"But we aren't traitors! We're trying to help! We're trying to _save_ Meltokio from an impending disaster, and you're standing in _our_ way, not the other way around! What you're doing is insanity! You have to stop! Please!" Emil begged walking slowly backwards.

His hand was shaking nervously over the sword's handgrip. He didn't want to use it, but he had to be ready to defend his companions if necessary.

"You are responsible for this. I gave you fair warning!"

"You didn't leave us any other option!" Marta complained. "You're demanding that we let you kill a person in our custody. It's neither fair, nor necessary."

"Welcome to the real world Marta." Decus noted.

He knew this situation very well. He lived through something similar a few years prior when Alice was attacked by a violent mob. The town's residents had accused her of being a Desian spy. It was the first time he killed a person. It was an accident; he had swung his sword to keep the mob at bay, but some of them still tried to attack Alice. The man had charged right into the arc of his sword, and died instantly. It took him a few seconds to come to grips with what he had done. Alice had grabbed him by the arm and practically dragged him away from the astonished, and terrified mob. That day changed his entire perception of the world as he knew it.

"Once you decide to do what's necessary, the rest of the world will steal your right to do what you want," he added.

Emil looked worriedly at Marta. He suddenly felt responsible for getting her into a real mess of trouble.

"Fine, _Madam Commandant_," he said, his voice spiteful with defeat, "But leave Marta out of this. I'm the one who—"

"Don't worry about it Emil," said Marta, her face a mask of confidence, even though she didn't quite feel it. "I'm with you. And I'm not about to let these fanatics get their way. You're no different than the Vanguard. The only difference is that you're from Tethe'alla. By your reasoning, that alone means you get to pass judgement on anyone."

"How dare you!" Alexia's face was turning red enough to give the Pope a run for his money.

Meanwhile, Decus was staring at them, positively envious. "Hey, lovebirds! Could you please give me the keys to the handcuff?" How he wished his relationship with Alice could be like theirs.

Emil hesitated. "I don't know…"

"C'mon… Aren't we on the same side now?"

"I'm not 'on your side!'" Emil complained. "Just because I don't want to see you get killed, doesn't mean I suddenly want to be friends."

Decus sat and crossing his legs and sighed. "Don't worry, it's cool. Now just convince them about that," he grumbled sarcastically, pointing awkwardly at the squadron of armed knights approaching them with what was very likely murderous intent. There were already three knights pointing their weapons at Emil and Marta.

"In the name of the Church of Martel, drop your weapons and surrender!" the three proclaimed in unison.

"Can't we talk about this?" Emil asked, his voice trembling. He really hoped that his smile was disarming.

If it was however, it didn't get the job done.

"Drop your weapons now, or I _will_ order them to attack." Alexia warned.

"Pft… weren't you going to do that anyway?" Marta muttered under her breath. "Look, we can't be arrested! Alice is about to—"

"Aha! I knew it all along! You _are_ allied with her!"

Decus rolled his eyes, "She just can't cut the bullshitting can she?"

"You didn't even let me finish! She's about to—"

"Silence! You three," the blonde woman pointed to three of the knights, "Eliminate these traitors!"

As soon as she gave the order, the three Templars broke from the circle and attacked.

Tenebrae's eye twitched. As much as he preferred to be a bystander in combat, he refused to let this continue.

"This is idiotic! Alexia, we should be working together to fight our common enemy, not trying to kill each other!" the centurion shouted.

"You became our enemies when you decided to side with that heathen murderer. You are traitors to Aselia."

"Traitors to Aselia?" Tenebrae asked, sounding genuinely curious, though the passive aggression in his tone was evident, "Now why would that be? Is it because we disobeyed you? Or is it because we disagree with your ideals, your refusal to accept that dictates that anything you can't understand must be destroyed?"

"How dare you claim to understand the reasoning of divinity, unholy beast! You know nothing of gods!"

"I know more than you would believe. No one can give you the right to—"

"The Pope can, in the name of the Goddess Martel! And he is the only—"

"Well, Ratatosk was the former guardian of the Giant Kharlan tree, and Martel's personal ally. I am a Centurion, one of his guardians, therefore _I_ overrule him! And do you really believe that His Eminence has what's best for the world in mind? You don't need to do very much digging to learn that he has only one priority, and it is not to lead your faith; it is, and has always been to use religion as a means to get power! And don't you see? _He succeeded weeks ago, thanks to your blindness! _Or have you just not noticed that the Pope has been publicly issuing royal degrees? As I recall, the punishment for treason is—"

Alexia screamed as if in physical agony, when she looked back at Tenebrae, the look in her eyes was murderous.

"Blasphemy! I will hear no more of your heretical preaching! You will burn at the stake for this!"

Tenebrae nearly laughed at the bizarre image of himself being tied to a plank of wood and set on fire. "You intend to kill a Centurion? Do you even realize that this is physically impossible?" he sighed, and floated into the air beyond the reach of Alexia's halberd. "I give up. I tried to get through to you, but this is obviously a waste of time. Lord Emil, Lady Marta, finish up with these imbeciles quickly so we can continue."

"Easier said than done!" Emil grunted as he used a _Phoenix Rush_ arte to strike at two of knights, who promptly switched targets and went after his companion. He had to parry the third's spear before his feet had touched the ground again.

"We could use…a little…help…Tenebrae!" Marta complained while she dodged a pair of spears.

"Very well. Give me one moment," the Centurion agreed, drifting back a ways. Fortunately, only Emil was able to see the black runes spreading out around him.

"You know, I could help you out if you just gave me the _damn keys to these things!_" Decus reminded them, shaking the cuffs vigorously and jangling their chains.

At the head of the knight mass, Alexia took a deep breath, and let it out vigorously. She repeated this process, then repeated it again. Four breaths. Five breaths. Six breaths. Seven breaths. Eight breaths. She was okay. She would not let the lies of that demonic dog break her. She needed a calm mind to retain command, and she needed self control if she wanted to fulfill his duty with the expected diligence.

Meanwhile, Emil was beginning to seriously consider Decus' offer. Alexia's Templars were frighteningly stronger than Meltokio or Papal knights. The training he had been witness to on her flagship paid off in full. He wasn't sure that they'd be able to hold them off even if Decus did enter the fight. He needed help right away, but could he really trust Decus with his life?

As if in answer to his dilemma, one of the knights broke his guard and jabbed him in the solar plexus with the blunt end of his spear. He would have doubled over but his attacker spun his spear and knocked him into the air.

Not one to ignore her boyfriend, Marta noticed him getting overwhelmed and slashed his attackers aside with her _Swallow Waltz_ arte.

"You okay, Emil?" she asked hurriedly, using her spinner as a shield as two of the offending Templars tried to bring their spears down on her head.

"I'm fine," he said, looking at the third knight who advancing on him, spear at the ready. Looking past him, he saw the entire squadron of Templars watching, waiting for the orders to attack. The decision was made for him. "Looks like I'll have to take the risk."

"Please, don't make me regret this," he told Decus sternly. Digging the key out of his pocket, he held it up for the other swordsman to see, and tossed it to him. While Decus made a valiant effort to catch the small metal object, the handcuffs thwarted him in his endeavour. Even so, it was the last time that they would hinder him that day.

Taking the cuffs off was a relief, but he wasn't given much time to feel it.

"The traitor finally showed his true colors," snarled Alexia spitefully. "You lower yourself to the criminal's level not by executing him, but by freeing him. I'm sorry, but I warned you repeatedly, and you ignored me. You have left me no other option," her voice, hoarse from shouting held a desperately sad tone, "All Templars kill them!"

"Because they _weren't_ trying to kill us already?" Emil mumbled with almost cheerful sounding sarcasm, followed by a heavy sigh. "This won't be good."

"Do not hold back. Do not take prisoners. These criminals will face Martel's justice." The blonde woman continued.

The circle of knights closed in on them, and the attack began. They struck without hesitation, their attacks stronger, and their movements more fluid. Emil was doing his best to defend himself, but two against twenty wasn't exactly a fair fight to begin with. If he added the fact that they also possessed a real amount of skill, the outcome didn't look very promising for him or Marta.

"Gyaah," the girl in question shrieked as she was struck to the ground.

"Marta!"

Emil turned momentarily to check on her. Taking advantage of his distraction, one of the knights struck Emil's sword with all his might, sending the weapon flying. He had no time to react. Another knight whacked him in the head with the haft of his spear, leaving him disoriented and allowing for one of his companions to drive him to the ground. A thin line of red began to make itself visible on the back of his head where the spear had hit him.

They didn't waste so much as a second. One of them approached Emil. And drew his spear back, to deliver a fatal blow. However, he was met with considerable resistance when he tried to thrust his weapon forward.

"What?"

The knight looked to see a hand on his spear. His eyes followed it up its arm until he saw the face of the man to whom the hand belonged.

It was Decus. The purple-haired swordsman waved, and smiled casually. The knight tried to shake the spear out of his grip but it was useless. It felt like he was tugging on a spear held by a statue.

"Good afternoon, nice to see you. Sorry about the interference, but I kind of need him alive right now. Come to think of it, so do you," Decus explained with a cheerful expression.

"Let go of my sp–Oomph!"

Decus punched him in the face, flooring him instantly.

The other Templars looked up from what their targets, to see their companion on the floor. They couldn't believe it, not only was their companion unconscious, but his helm was dented. Exactly how strong _was_ this guy?

With a barked order from Alexia however, they were back in formation. They recomposed themselves and looked Decus, who was pointing at one of them with his finger, his face dead serious.

"You're next on the list," he said coldly.

However as cool as he wanted to look, the reality was that he was beginning to notice a blinding pain in his hand.

"Oh my goddess, that hurts like hell!My hand!Gaaaaah!_ I must have broken something! That helm was much harder than it looked! Ack! Damn that hurts! _Holy crap! Hold on a sec, folks."

He continued cursing while the knights looked at him skeptically.

"This doesn't matter," Alexia said sternly, "Templars, you have only one more opponent to fight! You have the advantage. Six of you against three of them!"

"Actually Madam Commandant, _we_ outnumber _you_ five to one." Tenebrae said matter-of-factly.

"What kind of nonsense are you spouting, devil?" the Commandant said, a grin tugging at the corners of her mouth. He couldn't possibly be serious, "Where on Aselia could you have possibly have received thirty men from?"

"Please, don't insinuate that I would stoop so low as to call in human reinforcements. But don't you worry, reinforcements they are, and they will answer to me once they are here."

"Then by all means, tell me where they are."

"Very well." Tenebrae grinned "Just look up."

Alexia did as instructed, however there was nothing in the sky. To flock of hippogryphs, or pack of manticores. No hoard of artificial demons. Absolutely nothing.

"Ha! You're all talk. I knew you were just—"

She was suddenly cut off by a powerful tremor that made the ground shudder as though the land itself feared whatever was approaching.

"Whoops," Tenebrae said euphemistically.

Marta turned the head nervously. "Whoops? What is '_whoops_' supposed to mean?"

"I knew it was _jamarka esta simpatesda,_ not _endesta sinkofalia_," Tenebrae thought aloud completely ignoring Marta's question.

"What have you done?" Alexia, Marta and Emil all asked at the same time.

"Oh, this is very funny, hehe!" he answered, accidentally revealing his lack of control over the situation with a nervous laugh. "I _might_ have misspelled a small section of text in the summoning circle during the ritual. And I _might_ have summoned the wrong creature."

"What!" Marta shouted. "What the hell have you summoned?"

As if on cue, the ground gave a massive shudder and an enormous black and red worm-like serpent violently broke through the ground, roaring in a display of raw power and tossing the knights to the air like toy soldiers as it emerged.

"A Jormungand," Tenebrae answered, looking at the monster, "I'll be honest, I'm not sure that I can properly control it. It's not a creature that I hold any sway over."

Alexia stared at the creature before her with incredulity. The monster had three pairs of eyes on each side of its head and the mouth was filled with five rows of sharp fangs. It was without a doubt, a creature from the very bowels of hell.

"Scatter!" she shouted just as the monster attacked to the knights.

The knights immediately let their initial targets go, now far more concerned with the immediate threat.

"_Well at least it has decided to attack them and not us,"_ Tenebrae thought with a sigh of relief. There was a difference between summoning a monster and controlling it, and Jormungands were quite reluctant to obey anyone. In fact, there was an expression about them that went: _"You don't tame Jormungands, you just teach them to eat something else,"_ It was typically used when you saw someone doing something that you knew would have an unpleasant outcome. Among the centurions, it was used literally. Solum had even added to it: _"And even that really depends on whether you can survive long enough to teach them that."_

Even as the monster attacked the Templars, Decus was still yelping in pain, clutching his wrist. "Augh! Why did I punch him on the face? I'm an idiot! Oh my goddess, I must have shattered my knuckles!"

One of the knights lucky enough to have gone unnoticed by the Jormungand glanced at his unconscious companion out of the corner of his eye and gulped with mild trepidation.

'_How can such a goofball be so strong?'_ he thought, _'Well, unnatural strength aside, he can't avoid an attack that he doesn't see coming, especially while he's unarmed. You don't scare me, murderer! As long as the Goddess is with me I cannot be defeated!'_ He proceeded to sneak toward the distracted purple-haired man.

"Uh, sorry, I'll need to borrow that for a minute."

"What the—Ghaah!"

Not only had Decus noticed him, he had grabbed him by the wrist, twisted it in a direction that it definitely was not supposed to go in, and wrenched his spear out of his now feeble grip. "Thank you, I'll return this to you in a minute, providing you're still alive. You might want to get that looked at by the way. Dislocated hands hurt a _lot_."

The knight tried to attack him with his armoured fist, but Decus dodged the punch easily. "You really should have stayed at home today."

The Templar gulped, then choked on his saliva as Decus flipped him over his head and planted him face down in the dirt.

Meanwhile the monster that Tenebrae had summoned continued raging at the soldiers. The wyrm reared back and shot a jet of sizzling green acid at one of the soldiers from somewhere in its mouth. Luckily for him, Alexia pushed him out of the way before it could hit him, and likely reduce him to molten slag.

"Be more careful soldier!" Alexia ordered angrily without taking her eyes off the monster.

The man gaped from beneath his helmet at the trail of smoking and melted grass, which the substance had hit instead of him. If it hadn't been for his superior, he would have suffered a particularly gruesome and painful death.

"Ye-yes ma'am!"

Emil and Marta were fighting for their lives against a single particularly tough knight. Decus stunned him with a sharp kick to the side of the head and Marta slashed him across the backs of his knees. He fell to the ground, knocking Emil over in the process. Even so, he sighed with relief as Decus offered him a hand and Tenebrae drifted toward them.

"Thanks," he said, taking his hand. "It took you a while."

"Had to apply my cologne," the purple-haired swordsman explained hurriedly as he pulled Emil to his feet.

"I take it that my monsters are to you satisfaction, Lord Emil?"

"I even doubt you can control that thing," Marta interjected.

"What! Of course I can control it! Can't you see it hasn't even attempt to attack us?" Tenebrae shouted in defense. _"The truth is that he hasn't attack us because it saw them first. If they don't kill it we are going to be its dessert."_

"Yeah, sure..." said Marta, arching her eyebrows, "Did you just say you were putting on your cologne Decus?"

"Of course. I never go anywhere without a bottle of it."

"_Darn it!_" she swore.

"Huh?"

"I thought I got rid of it all!"

"What!? Why would you do that!?"

"You wouldn't understand," Emil sighed, "we've tried explaining it to you multiple times already anyway, but it doesn't really matter now."

"Do you have any idea how much I paid for that set?"

"Ten thousand gald too much?" Tenebrae supplied.

"Actually it only cost me about six thousand, but that's still a lot!"

"Then my point is still valid. You still paid ten thousand gald too much for that noxious brew."

Decus groaned. It would take days to place another order.

The gears started turning in Marta's head, and she guessed that he was probably thinking about buying more by mail order. She decided not to depress him further by informing him that Eau de Seduction was, thank goddess, no longer in production, or on the market. Still they both felt kind of bad for him. Especially after he had just saved their lives.

He actually saved their lives.

Emil grinned. Maybe Decus wasn't that bad after all.

"Thanks for—"

Before he could finish, Decus punched him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him and forcing him to the ground again.

"That's for attacking Alice back in the Ginnungagap!" he snarled, suddenly very angry. "What the hell was that? She was attacking you with a toy rapier! Yeah, go and attack her with a real weapon! That seems like a sane response!" he shouted sarcastically.

The purple-haired swordsman's temperament had gone from amicable to outrage in a split second. 'Loose cannon' didn't even begin to describe this guy.

"I— I-was… I… def— I-was…defending-myself…" Emil gulped out airlessly, barely able get enough oxygen into his lungs to speak coherently.

"She was attacking you with a novelty item!" Decus continued ranting, pacing back and forth in a short line in front of his audience. Emil desperately wanted to reply, but needed most of his energy to keep breathing without suffering additional pain. "A goddamn toy! Did it really sting so much that you had to attack her with a sword! What the hell is _wrong_ with you!? You could have killed her!"

"I-I'm sorry."

"I can't believe you! How do you justify something like that?"

"Decus!" Marta exclaimed. He was too busy raving hysterically to notice her slide in front of him and use her unopened spinner like a low hanging wall applied to the forehead. To his discredit, he practically charged into the metal disc.

She was easily able to drop her opponent in an instant and he lay on the ground in a daze. Again to his discredit, he had underestimated the fighting prowess of the teenager girl.

"Cut it out! Lay off him now, or else!" she growled menacingly, revving up her spinner.

"Uh, what?" he answered, deadpan, "If you're really considering killing me for shouting at him, you may want to check in to see a psychiatrist when you go home."

"Err…" she said smartly. Moments later she realized that the correct response would have been 'you're one to talk,' but he was already speaking again.

"Do I _look_ like I plan on killing him? _No_," he explained, as he picked himself up off the ground and looking at Emil with contempt. "But that doesn't mean I just can leave him unpunished after hurting Alice. Now that he's gotten what's coming to him though, I can leave without regrets."

"Wait—I need to—" Emil stammered.

"But—"

"Let him be Marta," Tenebrae warned in a serious voice. He was expecting this to happen sooner or later. At the very least, he predicted that Decus had no murderous intent. Mostly though, he just wanted him gone.

The brunette had been about to tell him that it was she who had wounded Alice in the Ginunngagap a month ago, but after what he had done to Emil she decided to follow Tenebrae's advice. It would be better if she let him be and resolve the issue when he was calmer.

She ran towards Emil, helping help to his feet after he had recovered, and they fell into step behind Decus, who had retrieved his iron maiden.

They didn't go very far. Alexia stood in their path. Though the Jormungand had soundly beaten all of her soldiers, all of whom were now unconscious or dead on the ground, the great serpent itself lay dead as well, split in two lengthwise behind her.

'_How did she do that? It's not natural! Did she kill it on her own?'_ Tenebrae silently wondered, _'She must have used some kind of arte. I should have paid more attention to their fight. Well, at least that thing is no longer a threat and neither are her knights.' _

She looked each of them in the eye, one after another.

"It serves him right for trusting someone like you," she said with a grin of satisfaction cleaning the sweat over her forehead. "However you'd be delusional if you thought I would just let you leave. I've spent a lot of time and resources tracking you down, and I absolutely refuse to lose you again now that I've finally found you."

Decus continued his impassive approach, casually removing his sword from his iron maiden, holding it in one hand and the sword in the other. Only minutes earlier he had been completely unconscious, dead to the world, and he was already prepared for battle.

"In the name of the Goddess Martel, prepare to meet your end!"

And with that she stampeded toward Decus.

He tossed his iron maiden to the sand and took up an aggressive stance with his sword. He had a mission to fulfill, and nothing and no one was going to interfere. He was ready to repeal her first attack when suddenly Alexia fell to her knees and dropped her weapon.

"Uh, what?"

Decus wasn't the only one to be surprised by the sudden change in her personality; Marta, Emil and Tenebrae were equally stunned by what was happening. A second ago she was charging at him and now she was sitting in front of him, her face beet red.

'_No… not this again…'_ she pleaded silently. _'How is this happening? I have to kill him! He has to die! Why? Why can't I bring myself to do it?'_

His gorgeous face, his sapphire eyes, his elegantly styled hair, his perfectly toned body, and that positively _entrancing_ aroma. She couldn't resist!

Decus didn't know how to react. He knew she was his enemy but attacking someone who was knelt in front of him disarmed and completely vulnerable just didn't feel right.

"Okay, you've made it clear to me that you want to cut me up like a scalloped potato, so I'm just going to ask if you're okay," he felt like an idiot for caring about the wellbeing of someone who had just sworn to kill him in Martel's name, but it was hard not to be intrigued; she seemed to have gone into some sort of strange trance. "Please tell me you are, because that'll make it a lot easier to know what to do in this situation."

'_Oh my Goddess! He's actually concerned about me!'_

"I…. I…" She tried valiantly to reply, but no words would leave her mouth. Something about the way he was looking at her…

'_Does he feel the same way I feel about him?'_ she wondered, _'Wait! Why do I even care? He's a monster! …I wonder if he's seeing anyone.'_

Decus arched his eyebrows. What could possibly be going on?

Alexia felt her ears burning and covered her face with her hands.

'_I can't let him see me like this!'_

"Just get away from me!" she shouted. Her heart was beating frantically, "I don't know what you're doing to me, but make it _stop!_ Leave! Now!"

"Oh… Okay?" he said uncertainly. He took a few careful steps back, picked up his iron maiden, and stuffed his sword inside it. He turned his head to glance at the Commandant as he began to make his retreat. He was about to ask if there was anything he could do to help, but things had gotten weird enough already, and asking questions would just make the situation more awkward. Besides, he had to find Alice before anyone else did. Wasting this opportunity to make a clean escape would be incredibly foolish.

"Well… um… thank you?" Decus asked unsure. "Have a nice day and all that I guess."

"Too late for that…" she moaned under her breath.

When she looked up, he had broken into a run, and was heading for Thoda dock.

Alexia blushed, squealed, and slammed her hands over her mouth as she her mouth as she heard her voice reaching a pitch she never wanted to hear it at. Luckily for her Decus didn't seem to have noticed it. The same couldn't be said about the other trio however.

"I don't know what he did to her, but we should take this chance to escape," Tenebrae noted.

Marta nodded and put Emil's arm over her shoulders. He was still coughing trying to recover from Decus' punch.

Which is about the time they ran out of luck. As soon as they tried to leave, Alexia recovered and was brandishing her halberd again.

"Stop right there! Where do you think you're going, traitors!"

Tenebrae sighed. Of course…it was too good to be true.

"Shouldn't you be going after Decus instead?" Tenebrae pointed. "You accused us of defending him while we had him in chains, and declared us traitors to the entire world. Now you have let him escape completely. By your philosophy, you should now be a much worse traitor we are, wouldn't you agree?"

"Silence, devil! I don't need to explain myself to your kind." Alexia was redder than a cranberry. She couldn't believe that she had let him escape a second time. But she couldn't let them know that. "He must have used some sort of spell on me."

Tenebrae rolled his eyes.

"Marta… Do you think it could have been the cologne he wears?" he whispered.

"No way… I mean… You've smelled it yourself. Anyone who found that attractive would have to be crazy…" she justified, but the more she thought about it, the more it seemed to explain her sudden bout of split personality disorder. But it _had_ to be impossible, right? "Do you think it really was?"

"What are you two whispering?" demanded the Commandant.

"Nothing, nothing… Anyway, I assume it would be too much to ask for you to let us go about our business without fighting?" the Centurion grumbled.

"Are you insane!? There is no way in hell that I would _ever_ let three traitors to my kingdom escape!"

Tenebrae sighed. This woman's attitude was exasperating beyond belief. Well, if there wasn't going to be an easy way out of this, "Desperate times called for desperate measures."

"No, thank you Tenebrae, we will take care of her ourselves." Marta said pointing at the dead worm.

"I bet you are going to remember this little mistake all your life."

* * *

**Renegade's base**

A metallic door opened sliding up into the ceiling and Raine, Regal, Genis, Presea, Sheena and Zelos entered in the room.

"Well, that was easier than expected." Zelos said, turning on the lights, "This is the control center, right?"

The entire chamber was filled with computers and other informatics devices. It wasn't very different from the controls rooms that the Desians had in their human ranches. At least, the two that he had been at. It shouldn't have surprised him. The technology was identical after all.

"He always used the same password for everything: 'icandoitbetter,' no caps," Raine answered, a little ashamed of actually knowing his password. She really wished could change her past wherever he was involved.

"Wait, what?" Genis gasped, an open-mouthed grin spreading across his face as he tried not to laugh. "Does he even realize what he's implying?"

"Don't underestimate Nickolay, Genis. He's a certified genius." Raine warned with a hint of annoyance in her voice. She blushed faintly for a fraction of second before adding, "That said, he's certainly no language expert."

The professor sat down in one of the chairs, turned on the largest computer, and began waiting for it to boot up, completely ignoring everything else. Everyone shared a suspicious glance, but no one actually said anything.

"Well…" Raine began clearing her throat, opening up the base's security feeds and beginning a thorough search. "Let's see, let's see… Where are you, Colette…?"

"Raine, I doubt it'll be this easy for us to find her. That room we fought Nickoly's techno-exbeula wasn't here last time, and we searched this place inside out." Zelos explained.

She nodded. Tapping a few keys, she typed in some sort of code and the words "Vault Breached" appeared onscreen.

"Excellent. Thank you for the advice Zelos."

"You're welcome! Finally, some recognition. Now if I could just get that iced tea, everything would be perfect."

"Are you still hung up on that?" Sheena asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, excuse me for feeling like I'm dying of thirst!"

Raine rolled her eyes, and added the vault's cameras to the rest of the ensemble, giving them a good view of the all the rooms and corridors.

"Look over here! I may have found Colette!" Presea shouted pointing at one of the screens with an unusual enthusiasm on her.

Raine pressed a few keys and the frame that Presea was pointing at expanded until it covered the all-screens-ensemble with its single image of the room where Colette was.

The blonde girl was strapped to an operating table. She was mostly naked, and had a few bruises here and there, but aside from that, she looked more or less unharmed.

Everyone sighed in relief.

"Well, there's one worry out of the way. Our cute little angel's alright!" Zelos said.

Sheena slammed her good fist onto a nearby desk.

"When we take Nickolay on, I'm going to make him pay for each one of those bruises."

"I don't think that Nickolay did that." Raine corrected. "Back when I knew him at least, he went to outrageous lengths to take meticulous care of all of his test subjects."

Everyone directed their very prejudiced gazes toward the professor.

"What!?" she protested, her eyes fiery. Why were they judging her? She just stated a fact.

"Nothing, nothing!" Zelos said with a timid and hopefully disarming smile as a drop of cold sweat rolled down his forehead. That woman could be very scary when she wanted.

She cleared her throat, "Anyway, I suspect that those injuries were either inflicted upon her by Alice, or…" she trailed off.

"Or…?" Genis prompted anxiously.

Raine tilted her head to the side.

"She may have gotten them struggling to free herself."

"Oh. Whew… I thought it was going to be worse for a sec," he said, relieved, "Well, all things considered, I guess it could be a lot worse. Can we try find Lloyd now?"

"That's probably a good idea." Regal agreed.

Raine flexed her fingers and returned to the overall security feed, beginning to search the live footage for any sign of her former student.

"Oh…my…goddess! Look!" Genis gasped pointing at a screen.

This wasn't something new for them in any way, but they had never expected to see this particular phenomenon a second time: Raine adjusted the image so that it filled the entirety of the central screen. Lloyd was fighting against some kind of half-exbeula creature, and judging by his perpetually defensive stance and the various wounds on his body, it was easy to see who was losing. Lloyd's skill was being outdone by sheer muscle.

'_Damn it Nickolay! You actually went and did it!'_ Raine cursed silently.

"What the hell is that thing!?" Zelos asked, looking at the bizarre creature attacking Lloyd in the display.

"That 'thing' is Nickolay." Raine confirmed.

"Why I'm not surprised?" Zelos sighed. "The mad scientist becomes a monster to attempt to defeat his enemy. It's just like Rodyle."

"You know, I try to see things from my enemies perspectives from time to time, but this guy is impossible! Every time I try to come up with a reason for me to sympathise with him he just proves that, no, he really is just a huge churl. I can't even give this guy points for creativity."

"Cliché or not, he'll be very dangerous in that form." Raine said. "And this isn't like Rodyle."

"What do you mean?" Genis asked.

"For one thing, while Rodyle couldn't change back, Nickolay can, at least if his results matched his hypothesis. He's using an incomplete Cruxis Crystal."

"And it turns him into that when he uses it? That is _gross!_" Sheena recoiled in disgust.

"Actually, no. It turned him into that, period."

"Isn't that what I said?"

"No. I said it in the past tense."

"I'm still not getting it," said Sheena, scratching her head.

"What I mean, is that that is his real body. The thing Lloyd is fighting, is what he looks like naturally now."

There was a round of various disgusted exclamations from everyone present in the room.

"I'm assuming his key crest acts as an inhibiter for the excess power." the silver-haired half-elf explained, pointing out the key crest lying on the floor in one of the footage boxes. "As such, this means that he can never take the crest off or he'll turn into…well, what you see here. Lloyd must have made him really angry."

"It's also likely that he can't just change back at will. Like an exbeula, he'll get angrier and angrier the longer he fights. At a certain point, he won't have the rational capacity to put the key crest back on, meaning the only way he'll change back is if he no longer has anything to fight, or is forcibly subdued."

"Then we shouldn't be hesitating," Presea decided, already on her way to the door.

"Presea's right!" Genis agreed, surprising even himself by his confidence, but somehow the fact that something needed to be done about the precarious situation made it easier. "Lloyd has to take him down, and take him down fast! He needs all the help he can get."

"Exactly," Presea added, "Will you be accompanying me, Genis?"

"Uh, y-yeah! Let's go!"

"Hey! Wait for me!" Sheena tried to catch them but Zelos grabbed her arm before she could leave. "What the hell are you doing? Let go of me!"

"You can't go with them. You're still wounded after the fight against that exbeula."

"Shut up! I still can fight!" Sheena protested twisting her arm in an attempt to break Zelos' grip.

"No! He's right. You're still wounded after the fight against Nickolay's very inaptly named Beauty," said Raine, "And we need someone to find Colette. You and Zelos should go look for her."

Part of Sheena still wanted to protest. She was just watching while her crush was being assaulted. By a mad scientist with claws, no less. Being unable to help him frustrated her to no end.

On the other hand, she knew that Raine was right. With her injuries, she needed a few gels and at least an hour before she could get back into the fight, and of course someone had to get Colette out of that operating room, and leaving Zelos to do that alone in her present condition made her uncomfortable.

"Fine… we'll go and find Colette," she conceded. She wasn't really excited about the idea, which wasn't to say she didn't want to help Colette either; Sylvarant's Chosen was one of her best friends after all. She just really wanted to help Lloyd.

"Have you noticed how we always end up together?" Zelos wondered aloud.

"I am in _no mood!_" she growled.

"Okay, okay! Don't hit me!"

They left, leaving Regal and the professor as the last people in the room.

The executive pulled a swivel chair away from one of the other consoles and sat down beside Raine.

"What are you doing?"

"Well, I've no reason to mince words;" she announced, her attention fixed on the computer, "I'm going to reduce this building to rubble."

Regal couldn't help but chuckle. "Speaking of clichés."

There was a buzzing noise and a red error message came up followed by a female, but obviously mechanical voice speaking over the intercom:

"Subject identity confirmed: Sage, Raine," it announced, "Species: Half-elf female. Age: Twenty-four years. The following protocols have been disabled until subject has vacated the premesis: Self-destruct protocol, mana distribution system."

The door opened up and the two other groups stepped back in to see Raine staring at the computer monitor, with a wide-eyed look of intrigue written across her face.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I for one think this is a nice change of pace," Genis said cheerfully.

"Me too," Regal said, dropping his elegance in favor of relief.

"Me three," Presea said, successfully keeping a straight face, and earning a laugh from both Regal and Genis.

"I'm going to agree with Genis here. You know, I'm not in the mood for big explosions right now."

All eyes—except for Raine, who still sat in stunned silence at the console—turned to Sheena.

"What can I say? I'm finding that faint electrical humming is actually kind of relaxing. Besides, this building is a marvel of technology. You'd regret blowing it up anyway."

"Well said, chief," Zelos nodded with gusto, "Let's get moving then."

"You really, shouldn't be all that surprised Raine," Sheena shook her head, "Yuan himself pointed out that you've always destroyed every stronghold we encounter. It's only natural that he'd install a defence system against you."

Raine continued to stare at the computer screen in amazement as the rescue teams for Lloyd and Colette finally got underway.

* * *

**Thoda island: Seal of water**

Undine appeared in front of Alice, who approached her with a malignant sneer.

"Your journey of destruction ends here," declared the summon spirit. She extended her arm toward Alice as though she were reaching out to her, and then closed her hand. A sword manifested from her closed fist; a smooth, flowing blade of glassy water, seeming to flow endlessly toward the tip of the blade. She brought her sword up to eye level, the blade facing forward, and summoned a condensed orb of water into her left hand.

Alice smiled sadistically.

"Once I dissipate you and close the seal, immeasurable power will finally be ours. You're just a raindrop in a volcano now. You haven't got a chance of stopping us!"

* * *

**Author notes: Well I hope you at least found it enjoyable. Don't forget to click the review button and feel free to leave any comment. Oh! And if you like Decus&Alice I recommend you to give a look to a fic called: **_**"Her Knight, His savior"**_**.**

**See you in the next chapter.**


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